PBESENTED  TO  THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

PRINCETON  THEOLOGICHL  SEMINARY 

BY 

Professor  }i^r\vy  van  Dyke,  D.D.,  LiIx.D. 


IBS  14- -30 


GATES 


INTO   THE 


PSALM-COUNTRY 


BY 

MARVIN    R.  VINCENT,  D.D., 

PASTOR  OF    "THB    church  OF  THE  COVENANT,"    NEW   YORK. 


*'  Open  to  me  the  gates  of  righteousness  :  I  will  go  into  them,  and  I  will  praise 
the  Lord  ; 

"  This  gate  of  the  Lord  into  which  the  righteous  shall  enter." 

Psalm  cxviii.  ;   19,  20. 


NEW   YORK  : 

CHARLES     SCRIBNER'S     SONS, 
1883. 


Copyright  by 

CHAKLES  SCBIBNER'S  SONS. 

1S78. 


Trow's 

Printing  &  Bookbinding  Co., 

205-213  East  \itk  St., 

NEW   YORK. 


Ko 

MY      PEOPLE, 

^^  l»fp  ©l^urt^  of  11^0  ©ousnant/^ 

WHOM    IT    HAS     BEEN     MV    JOY    TO    LEAD    THROUGH 
THESE    "GATES," 

S  jScbttatt  i\)is  Volximt. 


PREFACE. 


This  volume  is  not  intended  as  a  critical  treatise. 
It  is  for  the  closet  rather  than  for  the  study :  for  the 
average  Bible-reader  rather  than  for  the  scholar. 
The  several  chapters  are,  as  the  title  imports, 
merely  "gates,"  opening  here  and  there  into  this 
wonderful  Psalm.- region,  and  leading  fo  outlooks 
from  which,  it  is  hoped,  readers  may  catch  glimpses 
of  the  ineffable  beauty  and  richness  of  this  land  of 
sacred  song,  and  be  stimulated  to  longer  journeys 
and  to  more  minute  researches. 

Almost  all  of  these  chapters  were  originally  given 
to  my  own  people  in  the  form  of  lectures  or  ser- 
mons ;  and  while  I  have  in  some  instances  modified, 
or  partially  recast  them,  I  have  suffered  them  to 
retain  much  of  the  familiarity  and  directness  of  ad- 
dress which  mark  the  spoken  discourse  as  dis- 
tinguished from  the  essay. 

Some  of  these  studies,  it  will  be  observed,  deal 
with  entire  Psalms,  others  with  single  verses.     Yet 


viii  Preface. 

it  may  be  found,  in  some  cases,  that  the  single 
verse  lies  in  the  cleavage-line  of  the  whole  Psalm. 

I  shall  be  thankful,  if,  in  any  degree,  I  can  make 
others  share  the  feeling  which  has  been  constantly 
present  to  myself  in  the  preparation  of  this  volume 
— how  habitually  the  Psalms  fall  into  the  track  of 
New  Testament  thought  and  sentiment.  At  a  time 
when  so  many  readers  are  influenced,  unconsciously, 
perhaps,  by  the  patronizing  tone  of  certain  modern 
critics  towards  these  inspired  songs,  to  regard  them 
mainly  as  interesting  relics,  and  expressions  of  a 
crude  morality  and  of  an  infantile  faith, — it  may  be 
of  service  to  show,  even  in  this  unsystematic  and 
fragmentary  way,  how  many  of  them  fit  into  the 
best  and  ripest  phases  of  Christian  thought,  and 
adapt  themselves  to  the  most  advanced  ideals  of 
Christian  duty.  If  I  may  use  the  words  of  the  elo- 
quent Bishop  of  Derry  :  "The  Psalms  are  inter- 
woven with  the  texture  of  the  New  Testament. 
Christianity  is  responsible  for  the  Psalter  with  its 
very  life.  The  golden  key  of  the  Psalter  lies  in  a 
pierced  hand.  There  are  many  who  profess  to  ex- 
pel Christ  from  the  Psalms  in  the  interest  of  the 
Psalms  themselves.  But  the  Psalter  as  a  living 
thing,  and  the  association  with  it  of  our  Incarnate 
Lord,  stand  together.  Those  were  memorable 
words  which  Mr.  Coleridge  wrote  upon  the  margin 


Preface.  ix 

of  his  Prayer  Book  :  '  As  a  transparency  on  some 
night  of  public  rejoicing,  seen  by  common  day, 
with  the  lamps  from  within  removed,  even  such 
would  the  Psalms  be  to  me,  uninterpreted  by  the 
Gospel.'"* 

In  the  versions  of  the  Psalms,  I  have  mostly 
followed  Canon  Perowne,  and  in  the  essay  on 
the  Pilgrim  Psalms,  and  in  the  chapter  entitled 
"  The  Gate  to  the  Harvest-field,"  I  have  to  express 
my  great  obligation  to  the  charming  little  volume 
on  the  Pilgrim  Psalms,  by  the  Rev.  Samuel  Cox, 
of  Corporation  Oaks,  Nottingham,  the  editor  of 
the  "  Expositor." 
Covenant  Parsonage,  October  21,  1878. 

*  "  Witness  of  the  Psalms  to  Christ,"  by  William  Alexander, 
D.D.,  D.C.L.,  Bishop  of  Derry  and  Rapl  oe.  Bampton  Lectures 
for  1876. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGB 

I. — The  Orchard  Gate 3 

II. — The  Gate  to  the  Threshing-Floor 21 

III. — The  Oratory  Gate 39 

5,  3    IV. — The  Pasture  Gate 53 

^  '     V. — The  Registry  Gate 75 

9  '  VI.— The  Treasury  Gate 91 

'S  '     VII.— The  Gate  to  the  Confessional 109 

VIII. — The  Gate  to  the  Waiting-Place 127 

'''  T       IX. — The  Gate  to  the  Physician's 145 

X. — The  Gate  to  the  Cave 163 

^7      XI.— The  Gate  to  the  Sea iSr 

f  J   XII. — The  Gate  to  God's  Acre 199 

;    ^  XIII.— The  Gate  to  Rest 215 

f  I  f  XIV. — The  Gate  to  the  Heritage 231 

^ XV.— The  Gate  to  the  Drill-Ground 247 

XVI. — The  Gate  to  the  Highlands 265 

1 1  C  XVII.— The  Gate  to  the  Harvest-Field 283 

XVIII.— The  Gate  of  the  Caravan 299 


THE    ORCHARD    GATE. 


PSALM  I. 

(i)  Blessed  is  the  man  who  hath  not  walked  in  the  counsel 
of  the  wicked, 
Nor  stood  in  the  way  of  sinners, 
Nor  sat  in  the  seat  of  scorners  : 

(2)  But  in  the  law  of  Jehovah  is  his  delight, 

And  in  His  law  doth  he  meditate  day  and  night. 

(3)  So  is  he  like  a  tree  planted  by  streams  of  water. 
That  bringeth  forth  its  fruit  in  its  season, 
And  whose  leaf  also  doth  not  wither  : 

And  all  that  he  doeth  he  maketh  to  prosper. 


I. 

THE   ORCHARD   GATE., 

As  one  in  entering  a  city  or  a  public  building  pauses 
to  read  the  inscription  over  the  gate,  so,  on  the  threshold 
of  this  wonderful  temple  of  song,  we  shall  be  repaid  by 
stopping  to  study  the  first  Psalm ;  which  is  a  real  inscrip- 
tion, foreshadowing  what  is  beyond.  It  embodies  the 
truth  which  underlies  the  whole  Book  of  Psalms — that 
God  has  appointed  salvation  to  the  righteous  and  destruc- 
tion to  the  wicked.  Out  of  this  theme  grow  the  infinite 
modulations  of  aspiration,  prayer,  confession,  personal 
history,  denunciation,  regret,  praise,  and  admonition, 
which  have  made  this  book,  in  every  age,  the  interpreter 
of  the  Church's  deepest  emotion  and  the  favorite  closet 
monitor  of  the  individual  saint. 

The  Psalm,  therefore,  divides  itself  very  simply  into 
two  parts  :  the  first  treating  of  the  character  and  reward 
of  the  righteous,  and  the  second  of  the  character  and 
reward  of  the  wicked, 

A  good  man  is  a  subject  for  song.  He  is  a  happy  man, 
and  happiness  is  contagious.  He  is  a  dispenser  of 
strength,  and  comfort,  and  good  counsel,  and  thus  stirs 
up  other  hearts  to  sing.  He  is  a  struggling,  but  a  victo- 
rious man  ;  and  victory  is  a  theme  of  song  the  world  over  : 
and  the  symmetry  and  sweetness  of  the  character  which 


4  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

he  develops  in  his  struggle,  are  things  to  kindle  the  poet's 
heart,  and  to  make  men  sing  thanksgiving  hymns  for  the 
grace  which  shapes  a  noble  man  in  the  midst  of  the  world's 
pettiness  and  selfishness. 

So  it  is  no  wonder  that  the  Psalm  breaks  abruptly  into 
our  meditation  with  an  exclamation  of  admiring  joy : — "  O, 
how  happy  is  the  man  who  shuns  the  path  of  the  sinner, 
and  delights  in  the  law  of  the  Lord !  "  It  is  as  if  the  au- 
thor had  been  long  watching  the  panorama  of  human  life 
unfolding  before  him  in  court  and  camp,  and  beholding 
with  growing  enthusiasm  the  course  of  the  upright  man, 
until,  unable  longer  to  repress  his  admiration,  he  bursts 
forth  into  words  of  congratulation. 

The  good  man  is  first  described  negatively :  as  to  what 
he  is  not ;  and,  in  this  description,  some  have  thought 
that  a  progress  in  evil  was  indicated.  Thus,  the  good  man 
is  not  one  of  those  who  begin  by  walking  in  the  counsel  of 
the  ungodly ;  as  a  man  who,  in  his  walk,  lounges  care- 
lessly into  the  company  of  the  wicked,  listening  for  a  little 
while  to  their  talk,  or  watching  them  at  their  pleasure. 
This  is  the  "  entering  into  temptation,"  *  against  which  our 
Lord  warns  us.  So,  consequently,  the  godly  man  avoids 
the  second  step — standing  in  the  way  of  sinners ;  linger- 
ing in  their  society:  and  also  the  third,  sitting  in  the 
scorner's  seat — the  last  development  of  an  evil  career; 
when  one  has  given  himself  wholly  to  the  society  of  the 
wicked,  has  become  one  of  them,  and  not  only  works 
evil,  but  scoffs  at  holiness. 

There  is  something  very  suggestive  in  the  fact  that  this 

'  Mark  xiv.  38. 


The  Orchard  Gate.  5 

negative  description  of  virtue  is  put  first.  It  is  true  that 
goodness  does  not  primarily  consist  in  what  a  man  is  not ; 
and  the  Psahii  does  not  overlook  this  fact,  as  we  shall  see  ; 
but  this  mode  of  statement  is  based  upon  that  assumption 
of  the  native  weakness  and  corruption  of  the  human  heart, 
which  underhes  the  whole  Bible.  If  you  are  compelled 
to  be  absent  from  home  for  a  day,  and  to  leave  your  house 
in  charge  of  a  servant  whom  you  know  to  be  careless,  and 
easily  tempted  to  neglect  duty — the  most  of  your  instruc- 
tions are  given  him  in  this  negative  form.  You  do  not  so 
much  say — "  Do  this,  or  do  that/'  as — *'  Be  careful  that  you 
do  not  forget  to  do  this  or  that.  Do  not  leave  the  housa 
Do  not  fail  to  secure  the  doors.  Do  not  neglect  to  deliver 
such  a  message."  The  uppermost  thought  in  your  mind  is 
that  the  servant  is  likely  to  do  what  he  has  no  business  to 
do  ;  and  against  this  you  try  to  guard.  The  Bible  assumes 
the  same  thing  in  the  case  of  man.  He  is  naturally  dis- 
posed to  stand  in  the  way  of  sinners  and  to  walk  in  the 
counsel  of  the  ungodly.  Of  the  commandments,  eight  be- 
gin— *'  Thou  shalt  not :  "  and  one  of  the  remaining  two, 
the  fourth,  combines  "Thou  shalt"  and  *'Thou  shalt 
not." 

But,  as  already  observed,  the  Psalm  does  not  overlook 
the  positive  side  of  godly  character ;  and  in  presenting 
this,  it  introduces  us  to  a  charming  range  of  thought, 
through  a  comparison  with  one  of  the  most  beautiful  ob- 
jects in  nature.  "  He  shall  be  like  a  tree  planted  by  the 
rivers  of  water,  which  bringeth  forth  his  fruit  in  his  season. 
His  leaf  also  shall  not  wither,  and  whatsoever  he  doeth 
shall  prosper." 

In  this  figure  there  are  revealed  three  aspects  of  godly 


6  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

character  : — its  variety,  its  divine  culture,  and  its  fruitful- 
ness.     Let  us  look  at  each  of  these  in  turn. 

Notice  the  room  which  the  figure  leaves  for  the  devel- 
opment of  varieties  of  goodness.  The  comparison  is  with 
a  fruit  tree  :  not  of  any  particular  kind,  but  any  one  of  that 
large  class  of  trees  ;  thus  giving  us  the  whole  range  of 
the  garden  or  the  nursery  from  which  to  illustrate  the  in- 
finite diversity  with  which  moral  beauty  and  fruitfulness 
reveal  themselves.  True  godliness  does  not  reduce  men 
to  a  dead  level.  The  variety  which  God  stamps  upon  na- 
ture, He  means  to  have  reproduced  in  character.  It  is 
often  supposed  that,  by  becoming  a  servant  of  God,  a  man 
loses  all  his  distinctiveness,  sacrifices  many  of  his  peculiar 
modes  of  power,  and  shuts  himself  up  to  a  comparatively 
narrow  range  of  activity  :  whereas  the  truth  is  that  no  man 
ever  finds  out  the  variety  of  uses  to  which  human  talent 
and  power  can  be  put,  until  he  begins  to  work  under  God's 
direction.  Neither  the  variety  nor  the  measure  of  power 
are  fully  developed  until  then.  •  The  power  and  the  op- 
portunity are  never  in  contact  until  then.  There  is  no 
grade  of  talent,  no  acquirement,  no  odd  individuality,  no 
natural  gift,  no  trained  faculty,  for  which  the  kingdom  of 
grace  has  not  fifty  places  and  modes  of  exercise  where  the 
kingdom  of  nature  has  one  :  and  one  reason  why  the 
human  race  presents  so  many  of  what  we  call  oddities  of 
character,  is  because  these  are  out  of  the  place  which  God 
made  for  them.  When  a  thing  is  in  its  place,  it  ceases  to 
be  odd.  A  man  who  had  never  seen  a  gun,  might  take 
up  the  various  parts  of  it  as  they  lay  on  the  workman's 
bench,  and  declare  that  he  could  not  conceive  why  such 
things  should  ever  have  been  made  ;  that  curiously  shaped 


The  Orchard  Gate.  f 

piece  of  wood  ;  that  clicking  lock,  working  back  and  forth 
so  oddly  ;  that  long  iron  tube — what  are  they  all  for  ?  He 
finds  out  when  the  gunsmith  puts  lock,  stock,  and  barrel 
together,  and  the  sportsman  charges  the  piece  and  brings 
down  with  it  the  bounding  deer.  Hundreds  of  men  and 
women  are  in  contact  with  society  like  tenons  Avhich  have 
no  socket.  They  are  protuberances  which  press  against  so- 
ciety, and  irritate  it,  and  make,  by  dint  of  much  rubbing,  a 
kind  of  ill-fitting  place  for  themselves.  Let  God  once  put 
such  people  in  His  places,  and  all  the  tenons  find  their 
sockets. 

A  man  once  called  upon  me  who  had  been  rescued  from 
the  depths  of  ruffianism,  and  who  was  carrying  on  a  mis- 
sion among  the  outcasts  in  the  lower  wards  of  the  city. 
He  was  telling  of  the  prayer-meetings  they  held  there ; 
and  how  they  were  not  unfrequently  disturbed  by  drunken 
rioters,  who  broke  into  the  room  and  had  to  be  put  out  by 
force.  Said  he  :  "  When  anything  of  that  kind  happens, 
they  just  strike  up  "a  hymn,  and  I  go  as  quietly  as  I  can  and 
get  them  out  of  the  room.  Sometimes  they  are  very  ugly 
and  strike  at  me.  But  you  know  I  was  a  fighting  man 
myself  once,  and  pretty  well  used  to  taking  care  of  myself 
with  my  hands  ;  and  its  astonishing  how  handy  it  comes 
now."  The  illustration  is  all  the  better,  because  it  comes 
from  so  low  down.  God  had  a  place  for  the  mere  brute 
power  and  training  which  had  made  a  ruffian  a  pest  of 
society,  and  could  turn  it  to  use,  on  occasion,  for  the  pro- 
tection of  His  own  house  and  worship. 

The  comparison  farther  illustrates  the  divine  culture  of 
godly  character.  The  godly  man  is  not  like  a  tree  which 
grows  wild.     He  is  like  a  tree  planted,  and  that  in  a  place 


8  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

which  will  best  promote  its  growth.  Godly  character  is  de 
veloped  under  God's  special  supervision,  and  with  God's 
own  appliances.  We  cannot  but  notice  here  how  our 
Savior's  words  are  anticipated  :  "  Ye  have  not  chosen  me, 
but  I  have  chosen  you,  and  planted  you,'  that  ye  should 
bring  forth  fruit  and  that  your  fruit  should  remain."  And 
it  is  no  small  thing,  in  a  world  where  so  many  are  out  of 
their  place,  or  without  any  place  at  all,  to  be  assured  that 
any  man  who  chooses  may  do  his  work  and  develop  his 
character  in  a  place  of  God's  choosing.  We  think  per- 
haps it  would  be  a  great  thing  for  us  to  have  our  place 
pointed  out  as  clearly  as  Moses'  or  Paul's.  Well,  why 
not  ?  Was  it  only  for  a  dozen  men  that  the  promise  was 
made,  that  any  man  who  lacks  wisdom  can  have  it  by  ask- 
ing of  God  in  faith  ?  Has  God  no  other  means  of  re- 
vealing His  will,  but  through  a  burning  bush  or  a  stunning 
shock  ?  On  the  contrary,  His  modes  of  revelation  are  as 
many  as  the  characters  and  circumstances  of  men,  and  as 
varied ;  and  He  does  not  mean  that  His  lowliest  servant 
shall  work  under  the  shadow  of  a  doubt  whether  he  is  in 
his  place  or  not.  He  may  make  circumstances,  or  con- 
scientious judgment,  or  special  dispensations  His  messen- 
gers, but  whatever  be  the  messenger,  the  message  shall  be 
clear  to  the  open  eye  and  the  obedient  spirit — "  I  have 
planted  you." 

And  if  a  man  is  working  and  growing  where  God  sets 
him,  he  is  always  within  reach  of  the  means  necessary  for 
his  growth  and  fruitfulness.  He  is  always  planted  by  riv- 
ers of  water.     Men  find  these  channels  in  the  most  un. 

-  Such  is  the  true  rendering  of  "  ordained,''^  John  xv.  l6. 


The  Orchard  Gate.  g 

likely  places ;  in  the  most  unpromising  parts  of  God's 
garden.  In  their  very  work  they  find  something  to  en- 
gage their  energy,  quicken  their  enthusiasm,  and  develop 
their  power.  It  is  wonderful  what  grand  trees  will  often 
grow  up  among  rocks  ; '  and  what  majesty  of  character  and 
variety  and  reach  of  power  will  often  be  nourished  by  hard- 
ship. One  would  naturally  have  supposed  that  Paul's 
imprisonment  was  the  end  of  his  missionary  career  ;vyet  it 
was  one  of  the  most  fruitful  periods  of  his  life  to  the  Chhs- 
tian  Church  of  all  time.  Not  to  speak  of  his  work  in  the 
imperial  household,  the  fruit  of  his  being  planted  in  that 
seemingly  barren  spot,  drops  rich  and  ripe  into  the 
Church's  hand  to-day  from  the  Philippian,  Colossian,  and 
Ephesian  epistles,  and  from  the  little  letter  to  Philemon. 
And  this  is  a  mystery  to  men  of  the  world.     They  look 

1  •*  The  resources  of  trees,"  says  Ruskin,  "  are  not  developed  un- 
til they  have  difficulty  to  contend  with ;  neither  their  tenderness  of 
brotherly  love  and  harmony,  till  they  are  forced  to  choose  their  v^^ays 
of  various  life  where  there  is  contracted  room  for  them,  talking  to 
each  other  with  their  restrained  branches.  The  various  action  of  trees 
rooting  themselves  in  inhospitable  rocks,  stooping  to  look  into  ravines, 
hiding  from  the  search  of  glacier  winds,  reaching  forth  to  the  rays  of 
rare  sunshine,  crowding  down  together  to  drink  at  sweetest  streams, 
climbing  hand  in  hand  among  the  difficult  slopes,  opening  in  sudden 
dances  round  the  mossy  knolls,  gathering  into  companies  at  rest 
among  the  fragrant  fields,  gliding  in  grave  procession  over  the  home- 
ward ridges — nothing  of  this  can  be  conceived  among  the  unvexed  and 
unvaried  felicities  of  the  lowland  forest." 

And  Heinrich  Heine,  in  his  "  Harzreise,"  has  a  similar  thought. 
"  They  "  (the  mountain  trees)  "  stand  firmer  than  their  comfortable 
colleagues  in  the  cultivated  forest  ground  of  the  lowland.  Thus  in 
life  stand  those  great  men  who,  through  victory  over  earlier  hin- 
drances and  obstacles,  have  won  strength  and  steadfastness." 
I* 


lO  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

at  the  places  in  which  some  of  God's  servants  are  planted 
and  say  it  is  impossible  they  should  bear  fruit  there.  Cir- 
cumstances are  all  against  them.  There  are  no  capabili- 
ties in  the  place.  They  must  go  away,  or  they  will  starve, 
mentally  and  spiritually,  aye,  and  bodily  too  ;  and  yet 
they  do  not  starve,  and  they  are  not  crushed.  Amid  sick- 
ness, bereavement,  scant  opportunities,  hatred,  scorn,  they 
not  only  live,  but  grow,  and  have  something  to  spare  for 
other  lives, — yea,  minister  to  them  most  richly  and  effect- 
ively. What  is  more,  they  themselves  are  cheerful  and 
strong,  and  grow  in  sweetness  no  less  than  in  power.  It 
is  a  mystery  to  the  world,  I  say,  but  no  mystery  to  him 
who  knows  this  Psalm  by  heart.  "  The  secret  of  the  Lord 
is  with  them  that  fear  Him."  '  Even  so  have  I  seen  a  tree 
standing  out  in  a  dreary,  stony  plain,  under  the  blazing  sun, 
yet  fresh  and  green,  and  with  the  stir  of  life  in  its  leaves 
and  branches  ;  and  that  though  I  could  see  no  gleam  of 
water,  and  hear  the  gurgle  of  no  stream  through  the  still- 
ness of  the  shimmering  noon.  Yet  none  the  less  was  it 
planted  by  the  waters.  Down  deep  under  the  soil  flowed 
the  rills  which  bathed  its  roots  and  nourished  its  life. 
And  the  waters  by  which  God  feeds  these  planted  lives  of 
His  in  dry  places  are  seldom  seen.  They  flow  in  deep  chan- 
nels of  God's  digging,  where  the  eye  of  man  cannot  track 
them,  but  where  they  run,  charged  with  strength  and  glad- 
ness, to  the  souls  which  are  weary  and  heavy  laden.  Do 
you  know  where  this  truth  finds  its  highest  illustration  ? 
Did  you  ever  ponder  that  wonderful  text  in  the  Epistle  to 
the  Hebrews  ?  "  It  became  Him  for  whom  are  all  things, 

'  Ps.  XXV.  14. 


The  Orchard  Gate.  \\ 

and  by  whom  are  all  things,  in  bringing  many  sons  into 
glory,  to  make  the  Captain  of  their  salvation  perfect  through 
suffering."  '  What  do  those  words  mean,  but  that  suffermg 
is  God's  mightiest  instrument  of  perfection  ?  vWhat  is  the 
meaning  of  the  life  and  agony  and  death  of  the  Man  of 
sorrows,  but  to  show  to  an  incredulous  world — a  world 
which  believes  that  suffering  can  only  blight,  that  the 
rarest,  grandest  humanity  the  world  has  ever  seen  or  ever 
will  see,  could  grow  up  in  the  hardest  and  most  barren  soil 
in  which  humanity  ever  struggled  for  life  ? 

And  Christian  men,  yet  of  little  faith,  not  unfrequently 
find  this  a  mystery  too.  You  find  one  here  and  there  who 
doubts  whether  God  planted  him  because  he  cannot  see 
the  rivers  of  water.  He  says — "  I  should  be  more  fruitful  if 
I  were  planted  somewhere  else  ;  if  I  were  not  confined  to 
this  sick-bed ;  if  I  could  go  to  church  or  to  prayer-meet- 
ing oftener  ;  if  I  were  in  a  less  worldly  atmosphere." 

It  is  very,  very  doubtful.  If  God  has  planted  you, 
there  is  a  river  of  water  somewhere  near  you ;  and  you 
can  do  no  better  thing,  nothing  half  so  good  as  to  find  the 
river  on  your  ground.  That  is  the  stream  adapted  to 
strengthen  your  peculiar  weakness,  and  to  nourish  your  pe- 
culiar form  of  power.  You  are  much  on  a  sick-bed.  You 
wish  you  might  be  planted  on  some  healthful  height  in 
God's  garden.  But  God  has  set  you  among  the  chill 
damps,  and  the  fever  heats,  and  in  the  languid  air  which 
swoons  with  lassitude  ;  but  there  is  a  stream  called  Pa- 
tience flowing  close  by  that  sick-bed,  and  it  may  be  that 
God  put  you  there  for  nothing  else  but  to  find  it.     You 

'  Heb.  iL  lo. 


12  Gates  into  the  Psalm   Country. 

miss  the  stimulus  and  the  inspiration  of  social  worship ;  it 
may  have  been,  in  olden  days,  when  you  were  in  the 
whirl  of  society,  something  kept  you  at  home  for  awhile  ; 
and  you  learned  in  that  interval  to  know  a  true  friend 
whose  worth  you  never  knew  before ;  and  so  it  may  be 
that  Christ  wanted  to  show  you  how  much  He  could  be  to 
you  ;  and  He  drew  you  aside  all  to  Himself,  planted  you 
where  He  alone  could  tend  you,  and  if  you  have  found 
your  river,  you  know  now,  as  you  never  knew  before,  the 
meaning  of  those  words — "  He  that  drinketh  of  the  water 
that  I  shall  give  him  shall  never  thirst ;  but  the  water 
that  I  shall  give  him  shall  be  in  him,  a  well  of  water, 
springing  up  into  everlasting  life."  '  And  thus  it  is  with  all 
the  bare  spots  where  God  plants  you.  If  He  plants  you, 
it  is  always  by  rivers  of  water.  See  that  you  find  your 
river  in  your  place.  Though  you  miss  the  sweet  compan- 
ionship which  has  lightened  your  years  of  toil,  though  the 
sun  of  sorrow  seem  to  dry  up  every  drop  of  refreshing, 
though  your  iron  ring  hard  against  the  cruel  rock,  yet 
search,  for  you  shall  find  living  water  by  and  by.  Not  very 
long  ago  1  received  a  letter  from  a  friend  who  had  been 
])assing  through  eight  long  months  of  weary  watching  and 
anxious  dread,  and  toil,  robbed  of  all  heart  by  the  lowering 
shadow  of  possible  bereavement.  He  said — "  I  believe 
more  than  ever  in  prayer  in  the  closet."  Those  eight 
months  wrote  their  mark  upon  him,  but  he  found  his 
river  ;  and  when  a  man  strikes  that  water — prayer,  he  goes 
down  to  an  artesian  well,  deep  as  the  being  of  God,  and 
exhaustless  as  eternity. 

'  John  iv.  14. 


The  Orchard  Gate.  13 

Fruitfulness  is  the  natural  result  of  all  this.  GckJ's  tree 
by  God's  river  must  be  a  fruitful  tree.  "  He  that  abideth 
in  Me,  and  I  in  him,  the  same  bringeth  forth  much  fruit." ' 
"Those  that  be  planted  in  the  courts  of  the  Lord,  shall 
flourish  in  the  courts  of  our  God."  "  Only  we  must  note 
two  little  hints  in  this  verse,  either  of  which  might  easily 
be  expanded  into  a  sermon.  The  first  is — '■'■  his  fruit;" 
not  any  other  tree's  fruit.  God  gives  the  tree  its  nature, 
and  plants  it  where  it  can  best  develop  its  nature,  and 
looks  for  fruit  according  to  its  nature  and  place.  So,  after 
you  have  done  your  best  work  in  the  place  where  God 
has  set  you,  do  not  be  disturbed  and  irritated  because  it 
is  not  the  rarer,  more  beautiful  work  of  some  other  man. 
No  man's  vanity  ought  to  be  kindled  by  his  work  ;  but  he 
who  casts  contempt  on  his  own  honest  work,  when  he  has 
done  his  best  as  unto  God,  insults  God,  no  matter  if  his 
work  be  inferior  to  that  of  ten  thousand  other  men.  You 
are  not  to  waste  time  in  admiring  or  envying  other 
men's  modes  of  power,  but  to  give  your  whole  energy 
to  the  development  of  your  own  mode  of  power.  And 
if  your  best  is  only  a  single  fruit — why,  many  a  time  I 
have  seen  a  gardener  point  with  special  pride  and  pleas- 
ure to  a  dwarf  pear-tree  which  had  gathered  up  its  whole 
little  life  into  one  single  pear  ;  and  if  your  life's  best  labor 
brings  to  pass  but  a  single  result,  go  back  to  the  thought 
— God  i)lanted  me  —  and  be  well  content,  as  you  will 
have  a  right  to  be,  with  the  inference  from  that  ;  He 
planted  me  that  I  might  do  that  one  thing.  The  whole 
Christian  Church  to-day  is  suffering  because  of  the  multi« 

'  Jolm  XV.  5.  '  Ps.  xcii.  13. 


14  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

tude  of  its  members  who  are  doing  nothing  because  thej 
cannot  do  what  somebody  else  does. 

And  the  other  hint  is  in  the  words — "  In  his  season." 
The  seasons  are  different  for  different  fruits.  Some  are 
early,  some  are  late.  And  likewise  moral  growths  do 
not  all  fructify  at  the  same  time  or  rate.  No  workman 
of  God  need  be  disheartened  because  his  fruit  season 
comes  late,  any  more  than  the  luscious  pear  of  the  late 
Autumn  need  fold  up  its  leaves  and  die,  because  its  fruit 
was  hard  and  green  in  the  earlier  weeks,  when  the  har- 
vest-apples hung  ripe  and  juicy  from  their  boughs.  The 
latest  fruit  is  usually  the  best.  But,  early  or  late,  the 
fruit  of  godly  character  is  seasonable.  It  will  be  found 
that  God  nourishes  His  men  as  He  does  the  fruits  of  the 
earth,  to  meet  the  demands  of  special  seasons  ;  and  that 
in  each  individual  character  divine  graces  fructify  as  the 
occasion  demands ;  —  courage  for  seasons  of  danger, 
patience  for  seasons  of  suffering,  strength  for  seasons  of 
trial,  wisdom  for  seasons  of  difficulty,  words  spoken  in 
season — in  short,  the  beautiful  fitness  of  godliness  is  no 
less  remarkable  than  its  fruitfulness. 

"  And  whatsoever  he  doeth  shall  prosper."  This  is  a 
kind  of  general  summary  of  the  condition  which,  thus  far, 
has  been  treated  in  detail.  It  is  a  most  astonishing  prom- 
ise to  give  to  men  ;  yet  here,  as  all  through  this  Psalm, 
the  correspondence  with  the  broader  thought  of  the  New 
Testament  is  marked.  "  All  things  are  yours  "  '  because 
you  are  God's.  Whatsoever  he  doeth  shall  prosper,  be- 
cause he  is   planted  in  God's  garden,  by  God's  rivers. 

'  I  Cor.  iii.  21. 


TJie  Orchard  Gate.  1 5 

Only,  this  suggests  a  very  important  thought  as  to  the 
standard  of  prosperity.  If  it  is  prosperity  which  comes 
from  God,  it  must  be  measured  by  God's  rule — and  I 
need  not  say  that  that  is  quite  another  rule  from  men's — 
so  that,  with  reference  to  a  large  number  of  godly  men, 
the  world  is  disposed  to  deny  this  statement  and  to  say 
it  is  rather  the  other  way  :  whatsoever  he  doeth  does  not 
prosper.  He  has  sickness  and  financial  disaster ;  his 
plans  miscarry ;  he  has  tribulation,  distress,  nakedness 
and  peril.  Yet  it  by  no  means  follows  that  he  does  not 
prosper  according  to  a  different  and  a  higher  stand- 
ard. 

I  stood  last  summer  in  a  magnificent  hothouse,  where 
the  luscious  clusters  of  grapes  were  all  around  and  above  ; 
and  the  owner  said,  "  When  my  new  gardener  came,  he 
said  he  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  these  vines  unless 
he  could  cut  them  clear  down  to  the  stock  ;  and  he  did, 
and  we  had  no  grapes  for  two  years ;  but  this  is  the  re- 
sult." It  did  not  look  much  like  fruit  when  the  stocks 
stood  bare  and  the  floor  was  heaped  with  cuttings  ;  but 
the  gardener  looked  over  the  two  years,  and  saw  what  we 
were  seeing  and  tasting.  And  thus  we  naturally  turn  to 
our  Savior's  words — "  Every  branch  in  Me  which  beareth 
fruit,  He  purge th  it  that  it  may  bring  forth  more  fruit."  ' 
God  prunes  the  trees  in  His  own  garden,  and  Faith  looks 
away  from  the  stock  which  seems  so  cruelly  cut  down, 
and  sees  the  riches  of  coming  years.  Any  one  can  see, 
at  a  glance,  how  Paul  has  learned  this  lesson,  when  he 
says  of  tribulation,  and  distress,  and  peril — "  Nay,  in  all 

'  John  XV.  2. 


1 6  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

these  things  we  are  abundantly  the  conquerors  through 
Him  that  loved  us."  ' 

And  now  let  us  look  for  a  moment  at  the  great  supply 
which  nourishes  these  trees  of  God  and  these  fruits  of 
holiness.  Why  is  the  godly  life  at  once  so  fruitful  and 
so  delightsome  ?  "  His  delight  is  in  the  law  of  the 
Lord ;  and  in  His  law  doth  he  meditate  day  and  night." 
This  is  the  stream  from  which  all  the  minor  streams 
flow  :  that  which  gives  character  to  all  the  juices  which 
promote  the  growth  of  godliness.  From  the  law  of  God 
all  the  comforts  and  incentives,  all  the  warnings  and  in- 
junctions which  go  to  make  man  better  and  more  effi- 
cient, take  their  rise  and  acquire  their  flavor.  He  de- 
lights in  it  because  he  loves  its  Author.  Men  do  not 
naturally  love  law.  They  rebel  at  restraint,  and  court 
what  they  call  freedom ;  and  no  man  can  ever  love  law 
in  itself.  A  code  has  no  power  to  inspire  love.  He  will 
love  the  law  only  through  the  lawgiver.  He  will  delight 
in  a  law  which  restrains  and  prunes  him,  only  as  he  takes 
supreme  delight  in  the  Author  of  the  law.  He  will 
meditate  on  it  because  he  delights  in  it,  as  we  always 
think  on  that  which  we  love  ;  and  only  through  medita- 
ting on  it  will  he  grow  and  be  fruitful.  Meditation  is  to 
religious  growth,  what  the  drawing  up  of  the  juices  into 
the  fibres  is  to  the  growth  of  the  tree.  We  make  a  great 
mistake  if  we  carry  the  law  into  our  seasons  of  activity 
only.  ,  We  do  indeed  learn  much  of  its  practical  power 
and  value  in  that  way,  but  a  large  share  of  its  beauty  and 
richness  unfolds  only  in  our  hours  of  retirement,  when  we 

'  Rom.  viii.  37. 


The  Orchard  Gate.  17 

commune  with  our  hearts  upon  our  beds  and  are  still. 
You  have  been  in  a  greenhouse,  and  have  seen  the  large 
petals  of  the  night-blooming  cereus  closely  folded  to- 
gether, as  if  shrinking  from  the  stir  and  bustle  of  the  day ; 
but  as  the  hours  of  the  night  passed  away,  little  by  little 
they  fell  apart,  and  the  great  blossom  spread  out  its 
creamy  leaves  to  the  breath  of  the  night,  and  made  the 
air  heavy  with  its  fragrance.  And  so  it  is  with  the  law  of 
God.  It  may  be  in  a  man's  heart,  yet  the  crowd  of  the 
day's  duties  and  cares  may  press  round  it  so  as  to  hide  its 
beauty  and  partially  to  stifle  its  fragrance  ;  but  in  the  hours 
when  thought  is  free  to  dwell  upon  its  cherished  themes, 
under  the  power  of  midnight  meditation  it  expands  and 
discloses  new  beauties  and  sweeter  perfume,  until  the 
delighted  servant  of  God  cries — "  O  how  love  I  thy 
law  ! "  ' 

The  great  lesson,  then,  of  this  first  part  of  the  Psalm  is, 
— Holiness  is  happiness,  security,  stability,  fruitfulness  : 
and  holiness  is  based  solely  upon  the  law  of  God.  Within 
the  sphere  of  that  law,  as  in  a  sheltered  and  well-watered 
garden,  are  all  the  fountains  \vhich  minister  to  perfect 
blessedness  and  to  permanent  efficiency.  Prosperity ! 
That  is  what  we  all  are  seeking.  Are  we  sure  that  we 
know  what  true  prosperity  is  ?  We  need  be  in  no  doubt 
if  we  but  get  by  heart  the  lesson  of  this  Psalm.  It  is 
being  in  God's  ground,  placed  by  God's  hand,  fed  by 
God's  supplies!"  Stability  !  Something  fixed  and  settled  ! 
It  has  been  the  craving  of  the  world  in  all  ages ;  its  cry 
through  all  its  restlessness  and  shifting.     Its  cry  is  heard 

'  Ps.  cxix.  97. 


l8  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

and  answered  here.  He  is  fixed  indeed  whom  God  plants 
in  His  own  ground,  and  makes  steadfast  and  immovable. 
Security  !  How  much  fear  and  quaking  are  there  in  hu- 
man hearts.  What  a  yearning  for  some  safe  place  of  rest. 
Let  the  Psalmist  lead  you  to  the  safest  of  all  places — the 
garden  of  God,  beside  the  rivers  of  His  peace.  What 
poisonous  breath  shall  infect  that  tree  ?  What  blast  over- 
throw it?  What  hand  wound  it,  while  it  grows  within 
God's  enclosure?  "He  that  dwelleth  in  the  secret  place 
of  the  Most  High,  shall  abide  under  the  shadow  of  the 
Almighty."  '  Fruitfulness  !  We  are  ambitious,  full  of  the 
spirit  of  active  work.  God  takes  us  into  His  garden  to 
use  and  to  develop  our  enthusiasm,  yet  also  to  tone  down 
our  ambition,  and  to  teach  us  the  nature  of  true  success. 
If  He  teach  us  to  work,  we  shall  be  workmen  that  need 
not  to  be  ashamed.  If  He  give  us  success,  our  success 
will  stand  the  fiery  trial  of  His  judgment  seat,  and  will 
"  be  found  unto  praise  and  honor  and  glory  at  the  appear- 
ing of  Jesus  Christ."  *  Let  us  follow  the  Psalmist  gladly  into 
the  garden  of  God's  law ;  and  as  we  revel  in  its  beauty 
and  refreshment,  may  we*  be  prompted  to  say,  "  This  is 
my  rest  forever.    Here  will  I  dwell,  for  I  have  desired  it."  * 

'  Ps.  xci.  I.  -  I  Pet.  i.  7.  2  Ps.  cxxxii.  14. 


THE  GATE   TO  THE  THRESH- 
ING-FLOOR. 


PSALM   \. —{Continued:) 

(4)  Not  so  are  the  wicked  ; 

But  they  are    like    the    chaff  which  the    wind   driveth 
away. 

(5)  Therefore  the  wicked  shall  not  stand  in  the  judgment; 
Nor  sinners  in  the  congregation  of  the  righteous. 

(6)  For  Jehovah  knoweth  the  way  of  the  righteous, 
And  the  way  of  the  wicked  shall  perish. 


II. 

THE   GATE   TO  THE  THRESHING-FLOOR. 

This  is  not  as  pleasant  a  theme  as  the  last.  Yet  if  we 
would  see  the  word  of  God  in  its  unity,  we  must  face  the 
shadows  as  well  as  the  lights.  And  as,  in  nature,  you 
have  observed  that  nothing  is  more  sharply  defined  than 
the  edge  of  a  shadow,  so  here,  there  is  no  gradual  merg- 
ing of  one  class  of  characters  into  another.  There  is  no 
intimation  here  of  any  middle  ground  between  godliness 
and  ungodliness.  Here  and  elsewhere,  the  Bible  ranges 
men  on  either  side  of  a  strongly  marked  line.  Either 
they  are  planted  by  God's  hand  in  God's  garden,  beside 
God's  streams,  or  they  are  outside  the  enclosure.  Christ 
deals  with  this  matter  in  the  same  way.  He  throws  men 
into  two  categories  :  those  who  are  with  Him  and  those 
who  are  against  Him  ;  "  and  he  that  is  not  with  Him  is 
against  Him  ;  and  he  that  gathereth  not  with  Him  scatter- 
eth  abroad."  '  Paul,  too,  when  he  speaks  of  the  masters  to 
which  man  may  yield  himself,  recognizes  only  two.  "To 
whom  ye  yield  yourselves  servants  to  obey,  his  servants 
ye  are  to  whom  ye  obey,  whether  of  sin  unto  death,  or  of 
obedience  unto  righteousness."  '  And  since  this  truth  un- 
derlies the  entire  Psalm,  and  the  entire  Bible  for  that 

'  Matt.  xii.  30.  *  Rom.  vi.  i6. 


22  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Coimtry. 

matter,  it  ought  to  be  clearly  understood.  No  one  pre- 
tends that  every  man  who  is  not  an  avowed  servant  of 
God  is  a  defier  of  all  moral  obligation.  No  one  denies 
that  such  often  exhibit  the  loveliest  moral  traits ;  but  the 
question  is  broader  than  this,  and  concerns  the  moral  ad- 
ministration under  which  each  man  lives.  An  American 
citizen  may  go  and  live  for  years  in  Paris.  He  may  speak 
the  French  language  well,  dress  like  those  around  him, 
and  be,  in  no  outward  respect,  distinguishable  from  a  na- 
tive Parisian  ;  and  yet  he  may  acknowledge  no  allegiance 
to  the  French  Government.  When  a  decisive  issue  arises 
which  compels  him  to  declare  himself,  you  find  him  at 
the  American  minister's,  under  the  protection  of  his  own 
flag. 

And  God's  tests,  in  like  manner,  go  straight  through 
these  superficial  developments  of  character,  down  to  the 
roots  of  character.  Where  is  it  planted  ?  Whence  does  it 
get  its  impulse  ?  What  gives  it  its  ultimate  law?  Under 
what  administration  is  it  ?  Where  are  you  a  citizen  ?  The 
Bible  will  not  stop  to  discuss  with  you  the  advantages  of 
a  foreign  administration,  nor  its  points  of  resemblance  to 
God's  administration,  nor  the  eligibleness  or  respectabil- 
ity of  your  position  elsewhere.  The  Bible  is  on  God's 
side,  and  is  concerned  only  with  the  question  of  allegi- 
ance to  God.  It  puts  us  to  this  simple  test — citizen  or 
foreigner  ?  God's  servant  or  not  ?  That  NOT  contains 
the  germs  of  all  moral  disaster. 

Thus  we  are  prepared  for  the  sharp  contrast  with 
which  this  lesson  is  introduced  :  "  The  ungodly  are  NOT 
SO."  The  Psalmist  does  not  dwell  upon  the  details  of 
theii  ungodliness.     As  in  the  case  of  the  righteous,  he 


The  Gate  to  the  Threshing-Floor.  23 

confines  himself  to  indicating  the  sources  of  their  life,  and 
passes  over  all  that  intervenes,  until  the  judgment.  The 
great  object  of  this  introductory  Psalm  is  to  show  us  the 
fountain  heads  of  moral  character.  Its  developments  of 
both  kinds  we  find  in  abundance  throughout  the  Book  of 
Psalms ;  but  in  this  the  proper  truth  to  be  set  forth,  is 
the  fundamental  one,  that  all  true  fruitfulness  of  character 
is  found  in  God's  garden  only ;  in  being  planted  by  God's 
hand  and  by  God's  rivers,  and  that  all  barrenness  and 
uselessness  result  from  being  NOT  SO. 

Let  us  then  look  at  some  of  the  aspects  of  the  charac- 
ter which  is  not  so.  This  too  is  set  forth  by  a  figure.' 
We  have  seen  the  flourishing  tree.  The  garden- enclosure 
shuts  it  in ;  the  watercourses  bathe  its  roots  \  the  leaf  is 
green,  and  the  fruit  hangs  thick  and  tempting.  We  leave 
now  the  garden  gate,  and  not  far  off  behold  a  raised 
platform  of  earth  beaten  hard.  It  is  the  threshing  floor. 
Here  stand  the  workmen  with  their  earthen  vessels,  and 
scooping  up  the  threshed  grain  mingled  wit-h  chaff,  throw 
it  up  into  the  air,  or  let  it  fall  in  a  stream  from  the  up- 
lifted jar  ;  and  the  wind,  with  its  whirHng  gusts  which  arise 
so  suddenly  on  the  plains,  catches  the  chaff  and  drives  it 
away  before  it.  "  The  ungodly  are  like  the  chaff  which 
the  wind  driveth  away ; " — light,  shifting,  worthless.  - — 

We  have  then  set  forth  under  this  figure  three  aspects 
of  the  ungodly  character  ; — its  instability,  its  worthless- 
ness,  its  insecurity. 

One  of  the  happiest  phases  of  goodness  is  its  fixedness. 
Not  that  stubborn  obstinacy  which  certain  really  upright 
men  seem  to  feel  it  their  duty  to  cultivate,  but  a  stability 
which  consists  with  a  good  degree  of  flexibility,  and  with 


24  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

the  very  largest  fruitfulness  :  such  a  steadfastness  and  im- 
niovableness  as  always  abounds  in  the  work  of  the  Lord, 
and  which  is  therefore  well  represented  by  a  tree,  firmly 
rooted,  moving  with  the  breath  of  the  wind,  and  shaking 
down  fruit  as  it  moves.     A  life  rooted  thus  in  God,  is 
based  on  settled  conviction,  has  a  single  aim,  a  uniform 
tendency,  and  a  permanent  result.     In  these  particulars 
the  opposite  character  fails.    As  to  rational  conviction, 
when  a  man  ceases  to  believe  in  God  and  in  God's  law, 
what  is  he  not  likely  to  believe  ?     Theory  after  theory 
comes  rolling  in  from  the  great  deep  of  speculation,  and 
he  is  borne  now  upon  one  billow,  now  upon  another,  and 
again  is  out  of  sight  in  the  trough  of  the  sea.     Take  a 
life  away  from  God,  and  you  take  from  it  unity  of  impulse. 
Passion,  pride,  selfishness,  drive  it  hither  and  thither  as 
the  winds  drive  the  dismantled  ship.     Nowhere  but  in 
God  does  man  find  a  consistent  law.     The   laws  which 
he  makes  for  himself  have  all  sorts  of  accommodating 
curves  round  his  pet  desires.     They  are  cushioned  and 
padded  where  they  bear  upon  his  favorite  indulgences. 
It  is   only   the   statutes   of  the  Lord  which  are  right — 
straight,  rejoicing  the  heart.     Consequently,  such  a  life 
has  no  singleness  of  aim.     Its  aims  are  as  varied  as  its 
impulses.     It  moves  toward  as  many  points  as  the  driven 
chaff;  now  toward  sensual,  now  toward  intellectual  grati- 
fication ;  now  toward  fame,  now  toward  wealth.     It  is  an 
uneasy  life,  vague  alike  in  its  desires  and  in  its  hopes, 
•with  no  well-defined  point  of  rest  in  view.     And  O,  that 
men  would  learn  the  lesson  of  this  uneasiness  ;  for  it  has 
a  lesson  for  them.     Even  as  the  flying  chaff,  whirled  on 
before  the  rapid  wind,  tells  that  somewhere  there  is  ripe 


The  Gate  to  the   Threshing- Floor.  2$ 

grain,  and  harvest  to  be  garnered,  so  this  unrest,  this 
ever-recurring  thirst  of  the  soul,  is  a  reminder  of  its  home 
m  God.  In  the  beautiful  words  of  Augustine,  "  Thou 
madest  us  for  Thyself,  and  our  heart  is  restless  until  it 
repose  in  Thee." 

The  second  phase  of  this  character  is  its  vvorthlessness. 
Chaff!  The  wind  drives  it  away  and  the  husbandman  is 
glad  to  have  it  driven  away.  Here  again  we  find  our- 
selves in  the  track  of  Gospel  thought.  "Every  tree 
which  bringeth  not  forth  good  fruit,  is  hewn  down  and 
cast  into  the  fire."'  "  Every  plant  which  my  Heavenly 
Father  hath  not  planted,  shall  be  rooted  up  :  "  ^  rooted  up 
for  no  other  reason  than  that  He  hath  not  planted  it ;  and 
that  though  it  be  green  and  apparently  fruitful.  So  that 
we  cannot  evade  the  plain  proposition — An  ungodly  life 
is  a  worthless  life  because,  whatever  it  may  be,  however 
bustling  and  busy,  it  is  NOT  SO.  It  is  not  used  under 
God's  direction  and  for  God's  uses.  Even  in  worldly 
matters,  men  are  often  deceived  by  a  busy  life.  They 
see  a  man  who  is  always  active^  who  talks  a  great  deal 
about  how  much  he  has  to  do,  who  does  everything  with 
nuich  bustle  and  stir,  and  they  insensibly  come  to  re- 
gard him  as  a  most  important  and  useful  man,  when  in 
fact  he  may  be  neither. 

The  present  age  is  very  susceptible  to  this  fallacy — the 
identification  of  activity  with  usefulness.  It  is  counted 
high  praise  to  say  of  one  —  "  He  is  industrious  ;  he  is 
never  idle  ;  therefore  he  is  a  good  member  of  society." 
And  the  Bible  outdoes  the  world  in  its  praises  of  faithful 


'  Matthew  iii.  lo.  ^  Matthew  xv.  13. 

2 


26  Gates  into  the  Psalm   Coujttry. 

labor,  and  in  its  stinging  words  for  the  drone  ;  but  it  has 
no  praise  for  work  in  itself  considered.  It  goes  below  the 
work  and  asks — "  Under  whose  direction  ?  For  what  ? 
For  whom  ?  "  And  it  calls  that  man  useful  who  works  on 
God's  lines  and  in  God's  way,  for  God's  ends;  and  it 
gathers  into  one  category  as  useless  all  who  are  NOT 
SO.  Is  that  unreasonable  ?  A  general  pitches  his  tent 
near  a  green  meadow,  and  sends  out  a  sergeant  for  re- 
cruits. Day  after  day  the  officer  comes  in  with  new  volun- 
teers, and  they  are  ordered  into  line  and  put  under  train- 
ing. But  pretty  soon  comes  along  a  party  of  men  with 
scythes  on  their  shoulders.  "  Come  !  Don't  you  want 
to  enlist  ?  There  is  special  and  honorable  service  before 
us,  and  the  state  wants  its  ranks  filled  quickly."  "-Well, 
General,"  replies  one,  "you  may  consider  us  enlisted, 
if  you  like.  We  are  willing  to  serve  the  state  ;  and  so 
we  have  come  to  mow  this  meadow."  "But  I  don't  care 
whether  the  meadow  is  mowed  or  not.  I  want  men  to 
handle  muskets,  not  scythes."  "No,  we  prefer  to  mow. 
You  shall  see  how  active  we  will  be  ;  how  the  long 
swaths  will  go  down  before  us."  Will  any  one  blame  the 
General  because  he  says  of  those  fine  stalwart  fellows,  so 
eager  to  work,  so  active — "  They  are  useless  .?  "  What 
else  can  he  say  ?  He  wants  men  for  war ;  ready  and 
able  to  fight,  and  whatever  they  may  be,  they  are  use- 
less if  they  are  NOT  SO.  It  is  not  enough  that  you 
are  what  society  calls  useful,*  what  your  family  calls 
useful,  what  even  the  Church  calls  useful.  The  main,  the 
only  test  of  your  usefulness  applies  to  its  moral  relations. 
If  you  are  not  working  under  God's  orders,  your  greatest 
apparent  usefulness  may  be  a  power  for  evil.     A  great 


The  Gate  to  the  Threshing- Floor.  27 

deal  of  what  passes  here  for  honest  work,  aye,  for  Chris- 
tian work,  will  be  summarily  thrown  out  at  the  day  of 
judgment,  leaving  the  man  who  has  been  so  busy,  with 
his  work  for  his  pains. 

Useless  !  Nay,  there  is  a  sense  in  which  such  a  man  is 
useful.  God  makes  use  of  him,  against  his  will,  to  serve 
His  own  divine  purpose. 

"Blindly  the  wicked  work  the  righteous  will  of  heaven." 

But  what  a  lot  for  an  immortal  soul,  for  a  divinely 
created  will : — to  be  used  because  it  cannot  help  it.  To 
become  useful  through  its  destruction,  like  the  ashes  of 
the  fruitless  vines,  which  enrich  the  soil  and  make  other 
vines  heavy  with  the  fruit  which  they  refuse  to  bear.  O, 
for  a  soul  to  have  been  useless  in  the  thick  crowd  of  such 
noble  uses  :  useless,  in  the  face  of  work  which  might  have 
enlisted  the  enthusiasm  of  angels  :  useless,  when  there 
were  so  many  calls  for  its  power  :  useless,  when  Heaven 
was  ready  to  charge  it  with  its  own  energy,  and  to  set  it 
moving  on  a  track  of  conquest.  To  have  God  look  down 
with  contempt  on  the  bustling  activity  on  which  it  was 
wont  to  pride  itself,  and  upon  the  objects  on  which  it  ex- 
pended its  strength,  and  say,  *'  To  what  purpose  is  this 
waste  ?  "  and  to  drive  the  soul  which  thought  itself  so 
important  and  so  useful,  like  useless  chaff  before  the 
breath  of  His  indignation. 

There  will  come  a  time  when  those  who  have  lived  for 
self  and  have  looked  upon  life  only  as  a  means  of  minis- 
tering to  their  pride,  and  ease,  and  pleasure,  will  get  a 
new  and  startling  view  of  the  dignity  of  ministry,  of 
the  surpassing  blessedness  of  a  life  ministering  in  Christ's 


28  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

name,  and  therewith  a  painful  sense  of  the  utter  useless- 
ness  of  the  life  which  comes  to  be  ministered  unto ; 
which  receives  all,  and  gives  nothing.  It  is  only  the 
grain,  which  gives  itself  to  be  broken  and  kneaded,  the 
grain,  which  falls  into  the  ground  and  dies  to  multiply 
itself  and  to  feed  the  famishing — only  the  grain  which  is 
hoarded.  The  chaff,  which  only  lives  by  the  grain,  which 
feeds  no  one,  which  has  no  power  of  reproduction,  is  driv- 
en away.  So  it  is  the  law,  the  unchanging  law  of  God,  that 
the  life  which  gives  nothing  has  no  place  in  His  divine 
order ;  that  the  life  which  is  bound  to  no  other  life  by 
God's  laws  of  love  and  of  ministry,  but  is  self-centred,  is 
a!  light,  useless  life,  to  be  shaken  to  the  four  winds  when 
God  shall  shake  heaven  and  earth.  I  know  not  but  this 
picture  gave  direction  to  the  lurid  imagination  of  the 
great  Italian  poet,  when  he  painted  the  eternal  doom  of 
those  who  subjugate  reason  to  appetite,  in  that  place 

"Mute  of  alllight, 
Which  bellows  as  the  sea  does  in  a  tempest," 

and  where 

"  The  infernal  hurricane  that  never  rests 
Hurtles  the  spirits  onward  in  its  rapine  : 
Whirling  them  round  and  smiting,  it  molests  them  : 

And  as  the  wings  of  starlings  bear  them  on 

In  the  cold  season,  in  large  band  and  full, 

So  doth  that  blast  the  spirits  maledict : 

It  hither,  thither,  downward,  upward,  drives  them : 

No  hope  doth  comfort  them  for  evermore, 

Not  of  repose  but  even  of  lesser  pain."  * 

*  Dante,   "Inferno,"  Canto  V.,  Longfellow's  Trans. 


The  Gate  to  the   Threshing-Floor .  29 

And  with  such  a  picture  before  us,  I  need  not  dwell 
upon  the  insecurity  of  the  ungodly.  The  contrast  is  ob- 
vious between  the  tree,  safe  in  its  enclosure  by  the  water- 
courses, watched  and  tended  by  the  gardener,  its  fruits 
safe  from  the  plunderer — and  the  chaff,  loosely  lying  on 
the  exposed  threshing  floor,  where  the  first  blast  can 
drive  it,  no  one  cares  whither.  How  safe  is  the  man  who 
abides  in  God  ;  while  he  who  puts  himself  outside  of  the 
restraints  of  divine  law,  forfeits  likewise  its  protection. 

And  this  thought  of  the  insecurity  of  the  ungodly  fur- 
nishes a  transition  point  to  the  next  section  of  the  Psalm, 
which  turns  on  the  truth  that  the  real  weakness  and  insta- 
bility of  the  character  which  is  not  founded  in  God's  law 
shall  finally  be  made  manifest.  The  whole  current  of  the 
Psalm  moves  in  the  direction  of  a  day  of  final  tests  which 
shall  lay  bare  the  foundations  of  character.  All  the  ob- 
scurity which  now  beclouds  the  conditions  and  mutual 
relations  of  the  righteous  and*  of  the  wicked,  shall  be 
done  away.  As  things  now  are,  this  obscurity  is  very  op- 
pressive. "'The  ungodly  man  often  appears  the  more 
prosperous  and  the  safer  man  of  the  two.  He  is  com- 
passed about  with  friends,  secure  in  popularity,  well  fur- 
nished with  wealth.  He  seems  to  be  well  grounded.  The 
"green  bay  tree"  lifts  up  its  head  outside  the  garden  en- 
closure, and  towers  higher  than  the  fruit-tree  within,  and 
spreads  its  branches  in  great  power.  Again  we  find  our- 
selves in  the  track  of  our  Saviour's  thought ;  and,  singu- 
larly enough,  under  the  same  figure.  This  part  of  the 
Psalm  is  an  almost  literal  anticii)ation  of  the  parable  of 
the  tares."      Tares  and  wheat  are  in  the  same  field,  as 

'  Matthew  xii.  24,  30. 


30  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

wheat  and  chaff  are  on  the  same  threshing-floor.     The 
tares,  for  the  time,  enjoy  immunity  for  the  wheat's  sake: 
are    not   summarily  rooted  up  lest  the  wheat  be  root- 
ed up  with  them.     So  the   chaff,    while  it   keeps   close 
to  the  wheat,   enjoys    some   privileges   for   the   wheat's 
sake.      In    the   world,    good    and   evil    grow   together. 
They  often  look  so  much  alike  that  no  human  eye  can 
distinguish  them.     Evil  takes  advantage  of  good  for  its 
own  ends.     Scores  of  the  immunities  and  privileges  en- 
joyed by  evil  men,  which  make  them  tolerable  and  respect- 
able, and   even   influential  in   the   society  in  which   they 
move,  yea,  which  enable  them  to  concoct  their  schemes, 
and  to  practice  their  hypocrisies,  and  to  deceive  the  world 
with  their  superficial  morality,  are  the  outgrowths  of  the 
very  good  at  which  they  mock,  and  of  the  very  principles 
which  they  defy.     Meanwhile  both  grow  together.     The 
blunder  of  the  world  which  mistakes  wheat  for  tares  and 
tares  for  wheat  is  permitted,  for  God's  reasons,  to  per- 
petuate itself  for  the  time.     The  wicked  "stands  in  the 
congregation  of  the  righteous."     The  wolf  walks  unde- 
tected  in    sheep's    clothing.     The    malicious    persecutoi 
triumphs.     The  godly  man   is   slandered,  and   his   name 
blackened,  and  his  power  lamed.     Worldly  prosperity  is 
not  apportioned  according  to  desert.     "Is  it  always,"  as 
one  happily  puts  it,   "  the  swift  who  win  the  race,  and  the 
strong  who  carry  off   the  honors  of  the    battle?      Dc 
none  of  our  intelligent  lack  bread,  nor  any  of  the  learned 
favor  ?     Are  there  no  fools  lifted  to  high  places,  to  show 
with  how  little  wisdom  the  world  is  governed,  and  no  no- 
ble, heroic  breasts  dinted  by  the  blows  of  hostile  circum- 
stance, or  wounded  by  '  the  slings  and  arrows  of  outra- 


The  Gate  to  the  Threshing- Floor,  31 

geoiis  fortune  ? '     Are  there  none  in  our  midst  who  have 

to  bear 

'  The  whips  and  scorns  of  time, 
The  oppressor's  wrong,  the  proud  man's  contumely, 
The  pangs  of  despised  love,  the  law's  delay, 
The  insolence  of  office,  and  the  spurns 
That  patient  merit  of  the  unworthy  takes'  ?  "  ' 

Alas,  it  is  only  in  romances  that  virtue  always  triumphs, 
and  vice  always  goes  under.  In  short,  it  is  the  old  problem 
which  has  tasked  the  minds  of  sober  thinkers  from  the  be- 
ginning of  time,  and  has  driven  some  of  them  well-nigh  to 
despair — the  problem  stated  by  Job  :  "  Wherefore  do  the 
wicked  live,  become  old,  yea,  are  mighty  in  power  ? 
Their  seed  is  established  in  their  sight  with  them,  and  their 
offspring  before  their  eyes.  Their  houses  are  safe  from 
fear,  neither  is  the  rod  of  God  upon  them."  "  Similarly,  the 
old  Preacher  breathes  the  note  of  despair  as  he  looks,  "  So 
I  returned  and  considered  all  the  oppressions  that  are  done 
under  the  sun,  and  behold,  the  tears  of  such  as  were  op- 
pressed, and  they  had  no  comforter  :  and  on  the  side  of 
their  oppressors  there  was  power  ;  but  they  had  no  com- 
forter. Wherefore  I  praised  the  dead  which  are  aheady 
dead  more  than  the  living  which  are  yet  alive."  ' 

'  Samuel  Cox,    "  The  Quest  of  the  Chief  Good." 
*  Job  xxi.  7-9. 

•Eccles.  iv.    1-2.  Compare  Sophocles,  CEdipus  at  Colonos,  1226. 
"  Happiest  beyond  compare 

Never  to  taste  of  life  ; 

Happiest  in  order  next, 

Being  born,  with  quickest  speed 

Thither  again  to  turn 


32  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

But  our  Psalm  does  not  leave  us  here.  It  carries  us 
over  this  time  of  the  growing  together  of  wheat  and  tares, 
to  the  time  of  separation.  It  leads  our  eye  througla  all 
the  confusion  and  contradiction,  to  a  settled  point  of  rest. 
There  is  coming  a  day  of  judgment  whose  searching  tests 
shall  resolve  the  confusion,  and  make  clearly  manifest  to  the 
world  what  is  weak  and  what  is  strong ;  what  is  solid  and 
what  is  superficial ;  what  is  wheat  and  what  is  chaff.  The 
preacher  who  sounds  that  despairing  note  that  death  is 
better  than  life  with  this  problem  unsolved,  fights  his  way 
through  the  billows  and  reaches  land  at  last,  and  leaves 
us  with  the  words — "  God  shall  bring  every  work  into  judg- 
ment with  every  secret  thing,  whether  it  be  good  or  whether 
it  be  evil." '  And  Job  does  not  go  on  long  in  the  strain 
of  one  hopelessly  baffled  by  the  spectacle  of  the  wicked 
man's  prosperity.  A  few  verses  more  and  the  note  changes. 
"  How  oft  is  the  candle  of  the  wicked  put  out,  and  how 
oft  cometh  their  destruction  upon  them.  God  distributeth 
sorrows  in  His  anger.  They  are  as  stubble  before  the 
wind,  and  as  chaff  that  the  storm  carrieth  away."  * 

And  here  we  find  ourselves  viewing  the  judgment  in  a 
mood  which,  I  suspect,  is  not  habitual  with  us.  In  our  ordi- 
nary thoughts  on  the  judgment  we  are  chiefly  occupied 
with  its  terrors.     We  shrink  from  its  fiery  trial.     Fear  of 

From  whence  we  came. 
When  youth  hath  passed  away. 
With  all  its  follies  light, 
What  sorrow  is  not  there  ?  " 

— Plumptre's  Trans. 

'  Eccles.  xii.  14.  ^  Job  xxi.  17,  18. 


The  Gate  to  the   Threshing- Floor.  33 

its  searching  tests  is  our  uppermost  feeling  ;  and  we  sing 
"  That  Day  of  wrath,  that  dreadful  Day  !  " 

and 

"  That  awful  Day  will  surely  come." 

I  do  not  dispute  the  propriety  of  these  expressions  ;  but 
with  all  its  terror,  it  has  another  side.  "  There  was  a  time 
in  the  first  flush  of  Christian  faith,  when  the  second  coming 
was  daily,  hourly  expected  :  when  the  believers  looked  lit- 
tle to  the  future,  and  fancied  that  the  ministry  of  Jesus 
Christ  had  been  but  the  beginning  of  the  end  ;  "  and,  if  I 
do  not  misinterpret  the  sentiment  of  those  early  apostolic 
times  concerning  the  judgment,  it  was  a  joyful,  hopeful 
sentiment  rather  than  one  of  terror.  It  was  the  coming  of 
the  Lord  to  redeem  and  glorify  His  people,  and  to  vindicate 
His  struggling  church  ;  and  we  get  into  much  the  same 
mood  through  the  study  of  the  awful  problem  on  which  we 
have  touched.  That  is  the  dominant  feeling  of  the  book  of 
Ecclesiastes,  which  deals  with  this  problem  of  human  life. 
If  it  be  true  that  this  book  was  composed  during  the  latei 
captivity,  under  the  Persian  administration,  it  is  easy  to  im- 
agine how  a  Hebrew  exile  would  look  forward  to  a  day  of 
judgment.  The  slave  of  a  luxurious  despot's  whims,  afraid 
to  accumulate  property  lest  it  should  tempt  the  rapacity 
of  some  powerful  courtier,  liable  to  be  put  to  death  at  any 
moment  to  gratify  the  passing  fancy  of  the  monarch,  or  to 
have  the  whole  circle  of  his  kindred  cut  off  at  the  breath 
of  a  malicious  slander,'  in  daily  contact  with  the  arbitrary 
system  or  absence  of  system  which  rewarded  incompe- 

'  As  in  the  case  of  Mordecai. 
2* 


34  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

tency,  raised  worthlessness,  and  degraded  merit — we  can 
imagine,  I  say,  how  the  thought  of  a  judgment  would  be 
to  such  a  man  the  most  welcome  of  all  thoughts  ;  and  can 
appreciate  thus  the  undertone  of  triumph  in  the  conclud- 
ing words  of  the  book, — "  God  shall  bring  every  work  in- 
to judgment  with  every  secret  thing."  And  this  feeling 
creeps  into  our  Psalm  ;  intimated  rather  than  pronounced 
in  the  words,  "  the  Lord  knoweth  the  way  of  the  right- 
eous." A  dark  way  it  has  been  sometimes.  A  way  which 
has  made  men  question  the  profitableness  of  godliness.  A 
way  under  the  shadow  of  a  cross,  and  compassed  about 
by  the  phantoms  of  the  pit ;  yet  God  has  known  all  its 
windings,  and  has  known  that  through  darkness  it  led  up 
to  Him,  just  as  He  has  known  that  other  way  which  lay  so 
high,  and  broad,  and  smooth  under  the  full  blaze  of  pros- 
perity's sun,  and  has  seen  its  end  in  a  precipice,  over 
which  the  prosperous  sinner  shall  be  swept  like  chaff. 
Therefore,  I  repeat,  we  have  a  right  to  draw  consolation 
no  less  than  caution  and  godly  fear  from  the  judgment. 
It  will  be  a  comfort  to  have  this  fearful  problem  of  the 
long  tolerated  commingling  of  tares  and  wheat  decisively 
solved  ;  and  that  in  a  way  which  shall  vindicate  the  wis- 
dom and  the  justice  of  a  God  to  whom  His  people  cling, 
though  He  hide  Himself  in  clouds :  which  shall  prove  the 
eternal  solidity  of  those  principles  of  action  to  which  they 
hold  against  all  dictates  of  worldly  policy:  which  shall 
right  all  wrongs  and  riddle  all  shams,  and  bring  to  naught 
all  vain  boasting,  and  set  each  man  in  his  true  place  as 
related  to  God.  A  comfort  this  to  God's  servants,  but  no 
less  a  terror  to  the  wicked.  O,  what  a  fearful  winnowing 
shall  swell  the  chaff  heaps  in  that  day.     What  hypocrisies 


The  Gate  to  the  Threshing- Floor.  35 

shall  be  disengaged  from  their  goodly  wrappings  :  what  self- 
deceptions  blown  naked  from  their  shelter  into  the  re- 
morseless light  :  what  imposing  phantoms  of  greatness 
and  usefulness  and  goodness  driven  away  like  morning 
mist.     "  The  ungodly  shall  not  stand  in  the  judgment." 

Here  then  is  the  contrast  between  the  two  portions  of 
this  Psalm.  Here  is  the  fruitful,  cherished  tree,  and  here 
the  driving  chaff.  On  the  one  side,  stability,  divine  cul- 
ture, fruitfulness  ;  on  the  other,  instability,  uselessness, 
ruin.  On  the  one  side,  a  law  which  nourishes  every  form 
of  goodly  power,  and  provides  every  variety  of  instruction 
and  of  comfort ;  on  the  other,  license  which  dissipates 
power,  begets  restlessness,  and  ends  in  worthlessness. 
On  the  one  side,  a  divine  vindication,  on  the  other  a 
divine  exposure.  Which  shall  be  our  portion  ?  Where 
our  place  ?  In  the  garden  beside  the  river  of  God,  or  on 
the  threshing  floor  at  the  mercy  of  the  wind  ? 


THE   ORATORY  GATE. 


PSALM  V. 

(i)  Give  ear  to  my  words,  O  Jehovah, 
Consider  my  meditation. 

(2)  Hearken  unto  tlie  voice  of  my  cry,  my  King   and  mj 

God, 
For  unto  Thee  do  I  pray. 

(3)  Jehovah,  in  the  morning  shalt  Thou  hear  my  voice, 

In  the  morning  will  I  set  in  order  for  Thee  (my  prayer) 
and  watch. 

(4)  For  Thou  art  not  a  God  that  hath  pleasure  in  wicked- 

ness, 
Evil  cannot  sojourn  with  Thee. 

(5)  Fools  cannot  stand  in  Thy  sight ; 
Thou  hatest  all  workers  of  iniquity. 

(6)  Thou  destroyest  them  that  speak  lies  ; 

The  bloodthirsty  and  deceitful  man  doth  Jehovah  abhor. 

(7)  But  as  for  me — in  the  multitude  of  Thy  loving  kindness 

will  I  enter  Thy  house  ; 
I  will  bow  myself  towards  Thy  holy  temple  in  Thy  fear. 

(8)  O  Jehovah,  lead  me  in  Thy  righteousness,  because  of 

them  that  lie  in  wait  for  me. 
Make  Thy  way  plain  before  my  face  ; 

(9)  For  there  is  no  faithfulness  in  their  mouth  ; 
Their  inward  part  is  a  yawning  gulf ; 
Their  throat  is  an  open  sepulchre, 
(While)  they  make  smooth  their  tongue. 

(10)  Punish  Thou  them,  O  God  : — 

Let  them  fall  through  their  own  counsels  : 

In  the   multitude   of  their   transgressions   thrust   them 

away  ; 
For  they  have  rebelled  against  Thee. 

(11)  And  all  who  find  refuge  in  Thee  shall  rejoice  ; 
Forever  shall  they  shout  for  joy ; 

And  Thou  wilt  defend  them  ; 

And  they  who  love  Thy  name  shall  exult  in  Thee. 

(12)  For  Thou,  O  Jehovah,  dost  bless  the  righteous, 
With  favor  dost  Thou  compass  him  as  with  a  shield. 


III. 

THE  ORATORY  GATE. 

"  It  is  certain,"  says  Robert  Leighton,  **  that  the 
greater  part  of  men,  as  they  babble  out  vain,  languid,  and 
inefficacious  prayers,  most  unworthy  of  the  ear  of  the 
blessed  God,  so  they  seem,  in  some  degree,  to  set  a  just 
estimate  upon  them,  neither  hoping  for  any  success  from 
them,  nor  indeed  seeming  to  be  at  all  solicitous  about  it, 
but  committing  them  to  the  wind  as  vain  words,  which  in 
truth  they  are." 

It  is  indeed  a  serious  thing  when  prayer  is  thus  abused  ; 
but  the  abuse  is  committed  in  the  face  of  very  plain  les- 
sons in  the  word  of  God.  No  reader  of  that  word  need 
ignorantly  degrade  this  most  solemn  and  sublime  act  of 
a  human  soul. 

Such  a  lesson  is  this  Psalm.  It  is  a  prayer  itself;  and 
while  the  subject-matter  of  the  prayer  is  of  great  interest, 
the  Psalm  is  peculiar  in  setting  forth  the  characteristics 
of  prayer  in  general.     In  this  aspect  let  us  study  it. 

We  have,  in  the  first  place,  in  the  first  and  second 
verses,  a  suggestion  of  the  variety  of  prayer — "  Give  ear 
to  my  words  : "  formal  \)X^.y&r.  "  Consider  my  meditation : " 
unexpressed  prayer.  "  Hearken  unto  my  cry :  "  ejaculatory 
prayer.  Prayer  is  a  provision  for  a  universal  need,  and 
must  therefore  be  capable  of  a  large  variety  of  adaptations. 


40  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Coimtry. 

It  is  for  the  dumb  no  less  than  for  him  who  speaks ;  fot 
sudden  emergencies  no  less  than  for  stated  occasions ;  for 
the  closet,  but  also  for  the  crowd.  If  a  man  is  to  pray 
without  ceasing,  he  must  pray  under  an  endless  variety  of 
circumstances.  Thus  we  have  here  suggested  a  season 
when  prayer  can  be  deliberately  uttered.  When  one's  de- 
sires can  frame  themselves  into  words ;  when  he  can  fol- 
low the  periods  of  carefully  worded  liturgies,  or  pour  out 
a  free  heart  in  spontaneous  speech.  Then  we  have  that 
which  is  equally  prayer,  denoted  by  the  word  meditation  ; 
that  which  lies  in  the  heart  as  unexpressed  desire  or  aspi- 
ration ;  which  indicates  a  state  or  habit  of  mind  quite  as 
much  as  an  act. 

"Meditation,"  says  Gurnall,  "is  prayer  in  bullion: 
prayer  in  the  ore — soon  melted  and  run  into  holy  desires." 
The  value  of  prayer  does  not  lie  in  its  demonstrativeness. 
On  the  contrary,  the  soul's  unexpressed  aspiration  is  often 
more  truly  prayer  than  the  well-rounded  formula.  We 
should  be  especially  careful  to  distinguish  between  the 
spirit  and  the  habit  of  prayer.  The  habit  may  exist  with- 
out the  spirit ;  but  the  spirit  will  always  beget  the  habit. 
The  spirit  can  be  the  result  only  of  the  life  of  God  in  the 
soul ;  the  habit  of  prayer  may  be  the  result  of  education 
merely. 

Then  we  have  a  third  of  the  many  varieties  of  prayer 
suggested  by  the  word  ''  cry  .•" — the  passionate  outburst 
of  a  soul  in  distress,  or  dejection,  or  danger  ;  throwing 
out  a  prayer  like  a  strongly  shot  dart,'  which  gives  to 
such  prayer  the  name  of  ejaculatory.     "  These  darts  may 

'  Jaculum. 


Ike  Oratory  Gate.  41 

be  shot  to  heaven  without  using  the  tongue's  bow.  Such 
a  kind  of  prayer  that  of  Moses  was,  which  rang  so  loud 
in  God's  ear  that  He  asked  him — '  Wl>erefore  criest  thou 
unto  Me  ?  '  Whereas  we  do  not  read  of  a  word  that  he 
spake."  '  Or  such  may  be  the  mere  inarticulate  cry  of 
a  soul  which  knows  not  what  it  should  pray  for  as  it 
ought : 

"  So  runs  my  dream,  but  what  am  I  ? 
An  infant  crying  in  the  night : 
An  infant  crying  for  the  light. 
And  with  no  language  but  a  cry." 

And  it  is  worth  noting  that  such  a  prayer  as  this  links  it- 
self closely  with  meditation.  It  can  proceed  only  from  a 
true  spirit  of  prayer  so  far  as  that  is  indicated  by  a  genuine 
sense  of  need.  Such  prayer  is  always  genuine.  It  is 
wrung  from  men  in  times  when  they  are  hard  pressed  : 
when  they  cease  to  care  about  proprieties,  and  think  only 
of  the  sore  need  of  che  moment.  Such  was  the  prayer  of 
Peter,  when  he  felt  the  waves  yield  beneath  him — "  Lord, 
save  me  !  I  perish  !  "  And  as  a  mother  will  run  when  she 
hears  her  child  scream,  so  God  makes  haste  to  respond 
to  those  cries  of  His  children.  To  Him  there  are  words 
in  the  cry.  Its  language  is  as  intelligible  as  that  of  the 
priest  supplicating  at  the  altar.  "  Coming  from  our  heart 
it  reaches  God's  heart." 

Thus  much  for  the  variety  of  prayer. 

The  second  verse  directs  our  thought  X.o\\\q  appropriat- 
ing power  oi  •^xz.'^qx.     God  is  addressed  as  ;«y  king  ;  my 

'  Gurnall. 


42  Gates  into  the  Psalm   Country. 

God.  Our  Lord's  model  of  prayer  strikes  at  all  selfish- 
ness in  our  petitions.  It  bids  us  pray — *'  Our  Father ; 
Thy  kingdom  come  to  us  ;  Give  us  bread  ;  Forgive  us  our 
sins."  At  the  same  time,  it  does  not  exclude  the  personal 
element.  No  man  is  above  the  need  of  praying  for  him- 
self ;  and  God,  in  teaching  us  to  pray,  directs  us  to  the 
many-sidedness  of  His  character,  and  does  not  suffer  us  to 
forget,  in  our  contemplation  of  His  wonderful  provision 
for  the  whole  body  of  humanity,  the  equal  wonder  of  His 
provision  for  the  individual  man,  which  gives  him  com- 
mand of  the  whole  ministry  of  heaven,  as  though  he  were 
alone  in  the  universe.  "  These  little  pronouns — 7ny  king, 
my  God,  are,"  as  has  been  justly  observed,  "  the  very  pith 
and  marrow  of  the  plea.  Here  is  an  argument  why  God 
should  answer  prayer  :  because  He  is  our  king  and  our 
God.  We  are  not  aliens  to  Him.  He  is  the  king  of  our 
country.  He  is  ours  by  covenant,  ours  by  promise,  ours 
by  oath,  ours  by  blood."  ' 

By  the  third  verse  we  are  pointed  to  the  statedjiess  and 
decency  of  prayer.  It  is  well  that  prayer  should  be  spon- 
taneous ;  but  also  well  that  it  should  be  properly  regulat- 
ed. A  rich  soil  is  a  good  thing  ;  but  its  richness  is  no  rea- 
son why  its  fruits  and  grasses  should  be  allowed  to  grow 
up  in  confusion.  There  are  those  who  seem  to  think  that 
anyinsistence  on  propriety  in  prayer  implies  heartless  for- 
malism. Not  so  our  Psalm.  l\\  the  first  place,  it  sug- 
gests to  us  the  propriety  of  stated  seasons  for  prayer. 
'•  My  voice  shalt  thou  hear  in  the  morning^  The  gospel 
economy  is  indeed  one  of  freedom  and  of  spiritual  man- 

'  Spurgeon. 


The  Oratory  Gate.  43 

hood ;  but,  after  all,  we  never  get  entirely  beyond  the  ne- 
cessity of  rules.  We  are  always  the  better  for  the  adop- 
tion of  some  fixed  lines  of  life  ;  and  as  the  temptations  to 
negligence  are  nowhere  more  subtle  and  powerful  than  at 
our  closet  doors,  it  is  well  to  fence  these  with  a  habit  of 
prayer  at  a  stated  season.  David  indeed  does  not  limit 
this  to  the  morning.  In  the  fifty-fifth  Psalm  he  says  : 
"  Evening,  morning,  and  at  noon,  will  I  pray  and  cry 
aloud."  These  seasons  will  vary  in  frequency  and  in  time 
with  the  circumstances  of  individuals.  The  point  to  be 
insisted  on  is  the  having  some  season  sacredly  set  apart 
for  prayer,  on  which  nothing  shall  be  suffered  to  intrude. 
And  what  better  season  can  be  found  than  the  morning  ? 
In  the  days  of  the  old  Roman  empire,  the  gateways  of 
rich  and  powerful  citizens  were  thronged  in  the  mornings 
with  dependents,  each  bearing  his  basket,  and  waiting  for 
the  daily  gift  of  food.'  So  it  is  fitting  that  our  heavenly 
Father's  gate  should  daily  witness  our  presence,  at  the 
opening  of  the  day,  awaiting  our  share  of  the  bread  of 
heaven  to  nourish  us  for  the  day's  responsibilities,  trials, 
burdens,  and  temptations.  And  what  is  true  of  prayer  re- 
garded as  petition,  is  equally  true  of  prayer  viewed  as  com- 
munion or  as  worship.  It  is  fitting  that  the  fresh  ener- 
gies of  the  morning,  the  clear,  unwearied  thought,  the  vig- 
orous perception,  the  new  enthusiasm,  should  be  first 
called  out  towards  Him.  Then  we  are  quicker  to  take 
His  meaning,  and  calmer  to  face  the  coming  issues  of  the 
day,  and  better  disposed  for  that  concentration  of  mind  and 
heart  which  is  indispensable  to  the  effectiveness  of  prayer, 

'  Juvenal,  Satire  iii.,  249. 


44  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

*'  When  first  thy  eyes  unveil,  give  thy  soul  leave 

To  do  the  like  ;  our  bodies  but  forerun 
The  spirit's  duty  ;  true  hearts  spread  and  heave 

Unto  their  God,  as  flowers  do  to  the  sun ; 
Give  Him  thy  first  thoughts,  then,  so  shalt  thou  keep 
Him  company  all  day,  and  in  Him  sleep. 

Yet  never  sleep  the  sun  up ;  prayer  should 

Dawn  with  the  day.     There  are  set  awful  hours 

'Twixt  Heaven  and  us ;  the  manna  was  not  good 
After  sun-rising,  for  day  sullies  flowers. 

Rise  to  prevent  the  sun  ;  sleep  doth  sins  glut. 

And  heaven's  gate  opens  when  the  world's  is  shut 

Walk  with  thy  fellow  creatures ;  note  the  hush 
And  whisperings  amongst  them.     Not  a  spring 

Or  leaf  but  hath  its  morning  hymn  ;  each  bush 
And  oak  doth  know  I  AM — canst  thou  not  sing  i 

O  leave  thy  cares  and  follies  !     Go  this  way, 

And  thou  art  sure  to  prosper  all  the  day."  ' 

Note  too  the  suggestion  of  decency  in  the  act  of  prayer 
furnished  by  the  word  '■^ direct y  "In  the  morning  will  I 
direct  my  prayer  to  Thee."  The  original  word  is  used  of 
arranging  the  wood  and  the  sacrifice  upon  the  altar,  which 
was  one  of  the  first  duties  of  the  priest  as  soon  as  day 
dawned,'  and  also  of  setting  the  loaves  of  the  shew-bread 
in  order  upon  the  table.  Thus  the  meaning  is  broader 
than  that  of  our  version,  which  conveys  only  the  idea  of 
aiming  the  prayer,  as  an  arrow,  in  the  right  direction.  It 
is  rather — "  I  will  pray,  setting  forth  my  supplication-  in 
order  ;  "  or,  as  one  puts  it,  "  I  will  marshal  my  prayers, 
I  will  put  them  in  order,  and  call  up  all  my  powers,  and 

'  Henry  Vaughan,  'Lev.  vi.  12  ;  Numb,  xxviii.  4. 


The  Oratory  Gate.  45 

bid  them  stand  in  their  proper  places,  that  I  may  pray 
with  all  my  might,  and  pray  acceptably. '  '  In  all  this 
there  is  no  suggestion  which  goes  to  make  prayer  unduly 
formal ;  nothing  which  tends  to  repress  spontaneity  or  to 
fetter  liberty.  It  merely  teaches  that  prayer  should  be  de- 
corous and  well  pondered,  and  marked  by  an  intelligent 
purpose.  It  strikes  at  the  senseless  bellowings  and  fren- 
zied incoherencies,  at  the  blasphemous  familiarities  with 
the  name  of  God  and  with  the  work  of  Christ,  which  now 
and  then  appear  in  certain  so-called  acts  of  worship,  per- 
petrated by  those  who  ought  to  know  better.  It  strikes 
equally  at  the  hurried,  perfunctory  prayers  of  the  man  who 
goes  into  his  closet  without  a  previous  thought  of  his  needs, 
depending  upon  the  moment  for  suggestions  of  the  peti- 
tions he  is  to  put  up  to  God,  and  whose  prayers,  therefore, 
tend  to  run  into  a  set  of  commonplaces  and  formal  phrases, 
often  carrying  the  most  solemn  and  awful  things,  yet  pass- 
ing glibly  from  the  tongue,  only  to  be  forgotten  the  mo- 
ment the  closet  door  lets  him  back  to  business  or  to  pleas- 
ure. We  should  do  well  to  cover  less  ground  in  our 
prayers,  and  to  ponder  their  details  more  carefully.  Take 
the  familiar  formulas  of  address,  for  instance  :  "  Almighty 
God,  our  heavenly  FathcF  !  "  Stop  just  there.  I  am 
about  to  pray  to  the  omnipotent  and  onmiscient  God, 
my  Creator.  My  destinies  and  the  world's  are  in  His 
hands.  My  life  hangs  upon  His  will.  He  is  my  Father, 
too.  Ah !  you  will  wait  long  before  you  will  have 
grasped  all  the  wealth  of  goodness  and  of  love  conveyed 
in   that  single  word — Fatiif.r.     One  cannot  thus  weigh 

'  Trapp,  quoted  by  Spurgeon. 


46  Gates  into  the  Psalm   Country. 

his  words  without  getting  a  new  sense  of  the  sacredness 
of  prayer,  and  a  growing  dread  of  performing  the  duty 
hastily  or  thoughtlessly.  And  this,  too,  is  a  matter  which 
affects  our  enjoyment  of  prayer.  If  it  is  your  privilege 
to  know  a  man  of  rich  culture  and  of  varied  learning, 
you  cannot  enjoy  these  by  running  in  each  morning  for  a 
moment  and  exchanging  a  few  inquiries  about  health,  and 
a  few  commonplaces  about  the  weather.  Equally  it  is 
true  that  God  cannot  be  enjoyed  in  hasty,  perfunctory 
prayer.     "  He  that  believeth  shall  not  make  haste."  ' 

This  leads  us  naturally  to  a  fourth  characteristic  of 
prayer — expedayicy,  suggested  by  the  third  verse — "  I  will 
watch  or  look  upy  As  Elijah,  when  he  had  arranged  the 
wood  and  the  bullock  on  Carmel,  looked  up  for  the  fire 
from  Heaven,  so  he  who  has  thoughtfully  and  reverently 
set  forth  his  prayer  before  God,  should  expect  the  an- 
swer. He  who  prays  otherwise  mocks  God  ;  and  yet  how 
many  pray  as  one  who  shoots  an  arrow  at  random,  not 
looking  to  see  what  becomes  of  his  shaft.  What  becomes 
of  our  prayers  ?  Do  we  look  to  see  whether  they  strike 
their  mark  or  any  mark  ?  When  a  merchant  counts  his 
assets,  he  counts  not  only  what  he  has  in  his  storehouses, 
but  what  he  has  sent  across  the  sea ;  and  when  we  send 
forth  these  barques  of  prayer,  laden  with  the  dearest 
wishes  and  the  deepest  yearnings  of  our  souls,  is  it  noth- 
ing to  us  whether  they  arrive  at  their  destined  haven  ? 
"  Never  was  faithful  prayer  los'.  at  sea.  No  merchant 
trades  with  such  certainty  as  the  praying  saint.  Some 
prayers,  indeed,  have  a  longer  voyage  than  others,  but 

'  Isaiah  xxviii.  1 6. 


The  Oratory  Gate.  47 

then  they  come  with  the  richer  lading  at  last.  In  trading 
he  gets  most  by  his  commodity  that  can  do  without  his 
money  longest.  So  the  Christian  that  can  with  most 
patience  stay  for  a  return  of  prayer,  shall  never  be 
ashamed  of  his  waiting."  '  We  are  to  watch  and  pray; 
to  watch  tmto  prayer — with  reference  to  prayer  ;  to  watch 
before  prayer,  that  our  prayer  may  be  rightly  directed  or 
set  in  order ;  to  watch  during  prayer,  against  "  unman- 
nerly distractions ;  "  to  watch  after  prayer,  to  see  what 
becomes  of  our  prayers.  Some  one  has  very  pithily  said 
that  the  man  who  does  not  look  after  the  prayers  he  has 
put  up,  is  like  the  ostrich  which  lays  lier  eggs  and  looks 
not  for  her  young. 

A  fifth  element  of  true  prayer  appears  in  the  seventh 
verse  : — confidence  ;  that  to  which  the  apostle  invites  us 
when  he  says — "  Let  us  therefore  come  boldly  unto  the 
throne  of  grace  : "  '  The  Psalmist  speaks  as  one  who  has  a 
right  to  come  into  God's  house.  It  is  his  house  because 
it  is  God's.  The  late  Dr.  Arnott,  commenting  on  the 
words  "  They  shall  be  abundantly  satisfied  with  the  fat- 
ness of  Thy  house,"  says — "  I  once  heard  a  father  tell  that 
when  he  removed  his  family  to  a  new  residence  where 
the  accommodation  was  much  more  ample,  the  substance 
much  more  rich  and  varied  than  that  to  wliich  they  had 
previously  been  accustomed,  his  youngest  son,  yet  a  lisp- 
ing infant,  ran  round  every  room  and  scanned  every 
article  with  ecstasy,  calling  out,  in  childish  wonder  at 
every  new  sight,  'Is  this  t?//^^, .  fatlier  ?  And  is  this 
ours?'    The  child  did  not  sa.y  yours  ;  and  1  observed  that 

'  Gurnall  *  Hebrews  iv.  i6. 


48  Gates  into  tJie  Psalm   Country. 

the  father,  while  he  told  the  story,  was  not  offended  with 
the  freedom.  You  could  read  in  his  glistening  eye  that 
the  infant's  confidence  in  appropriating  as  his  own  all 
that  his  father  had,  was  an  important  element  in  his  satis- 
faction." What  a  beautiful  comment  this  upon  the 
apostle's  words — "All  things  are  yours,  and  ye  are 
Christ's,  and  Christ  is  God's."  '  The  child  of  God  has  no 
need  to  linger  on  his  Father's  threshold,  nor  to  knock 
timidly.  How  differently  a  beggar  and  your  child  come 
to  your  office  or  study.  The  one  raps  hesitatingly,  and 
awaits  coweringly  your  permission  to  enter  ;  while  your 
boy  bounds  in  at  will,  not  always  quietly,  showing  that  he 
feels  himself  at  home  where  his  father  is.  The  Christian 
has  a  child's  place  in  God's  house,  and  comes  boldly  to 
His  mercy  seat,  and  asks  large  things  that  his  joy  may  be 
full.' 

Yet  this  confidence  by  no  means  excludes  a  sixth 
characteristic  of  prayer  : — humble  reve7-ence.  "As  for 
me,  I  will  come  into  Thy  house,  but  I  will  come  in  the 
multitude  of  Thy  mercy."  It  is  of  free  grace,  of  unde- 
served compassion,  of  abounding  love,  that  I  am  per- 
mitted to  come.  "  Thou  art  not  a  God  that  hath  pleas- 
ure in  wickedness,"  and  I  am  sinful.  "  The  foolish  shall 
not  stand  in  Thy  sight,"  and  I  have  been  the  foolish 
prodigal  who  would  have  his  portion,  and  who  has  wasted 
it  in  the  far  country.  But  Thou  art  merciful ;  and  Thy 
mercy  hath  restored  me,  Thy  j^ardon  hath  compassed  Thy 
erring  child  about.  Thou  hast  healed  liis  backslidings  and 
hast  loved  him  freely ;   and  so  I  come   into   Thy  house, 


*  I  Corinthians  iii.  21,  23. 


TJie  Oratory  Gate.  49 

not  because  of  my  goodness  or  strength,  but  "  in  the 
multitude  of  Thy  mercy,"  to  pass  the  time  of  my  sojourn- 
ing in  fear — godly,  filial  fear,  as  one  whom  thou  hast 
redeemed  at  a  price. ' 

And  such  an  approach  to  God  must  involve  the  last 
element  of  prayer  suggested  by  the  Psalm— y^_>' .•  "And 
all  those  who  find  refuge  in  Thee  shall  rejoice;  forever 
shall  they  shout  for  joy."  Why  should  they  not  ?  Thou 
defendest  them.  Gn  earth,  the  intercourse  of  love  is 
often  marred  by  danger ;  but  he  who  talks  with  God  in 
His  own  house,  always  communes  in  safety.  "He  that 
dwelleth  in  the  secret  place  of  the  Most  High  shall  abide 
under  the  shadow  of  the  Almighty."  "^  Shall  not  God  pro- 
tect His  own  child  in  His  own  home  ?  To  talk  familiarly 
with  God,  to  come  boldly  into  His  house,  to  behold  His 
beauty,  to  question  Him  freely,  inquiring  in  His  temple,  to 
be  safe  in  the  shadow  of  His*  power,  to  be  sure  of  His 
love  and  mercy,  and  solidly  convinced  of  His  infinite 
righteousness — well  may  such  an  one  say,  "  Let  them  that 
love  Thy  name  be  joyful  in  Thee." 

Thus  this  Psalm  is  a  great  lesson  on  prayer ;  pointing 
us  to  its  variety  as  a  weapon  adapted  for  all  emergencies, 
and  teaching  us  how  to  wield  it  most  effectively.  We  are 
taught  to  carry  into  it  the  faith  which  appropriates  God 
as  our  own.  We  are  warned  against  the  profanation  by 
carelessness  or  haste  of  that  most  solemn  of  acts — com- 
munion with  our  Creator.  We  are  bidden  to  send  forth 
our  prayers  considerately,  and  to  look  confidently  for 
tidings   from    them.     The  Psalm    drives  all  slavish  fear 

'  I  Peter  i.  17,  18.  "  Psalm  xci.  I. 

3 


50  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

from  our  prayers  even  while  it  bases  our  confidence 
wholly  upon  the  undeserved  compassion  of  our  Father  in 
Heaven  ;  and  it  commends  to  us  intercourse  with  God  as 
no  mere  task  or  duty,  but  as  the  dearest  employ,  iient  and 
the  sweetest  joy  of  our  lives. 


THE  PASTUKE   GATE. 


PSALM  XXIIL 

(i)  Jehovah  is  my  Shepherd,  I  shall  not  want. 

(2)  In  pastures  of  grass  He  maketh  me  to  lie  down; 
Beside  waters  of  rest  doth  He  guide  me. 

(3)  He  restoreth  my  soul ; 

He  leadeth  me  in  the  paths  of  righteousness,      • 
For  His  name's  sake. 

(4)  Yea,  though  I  walk  through  the  valley  of  the   shadow 

of  death, 
I  will  fear  no  evil,  for  thou  art  with  me : 
Thy  rod  and  thy  staff — they  comfort  me. 

(5)  Thou  preparest  a  table  before  me, 
In  the  presence  of  mine  enemies  : 
Thou  hast  anointed  my  head  with  oil. 
My  cup  runneth  over. 

(6)  Surely  goodness  and   loving-kindness  shall  follow  me 

all  the  days  of  my  life, 
And  I  will  dwell  in   the  house  of  Jehovah  for  length 
of  days. 


IV. 

THE  PASTURE  GATE. 

Common  things  do  not  give  up  their  meaning  to  human 
reason,  any  more  than  a  flint  gives  out  sparks  by  contact 
witli  wood  or  clay.  The  word  of  God  acts  upon  them  as 
steel  upon  flint,  and  strikes  divine  fire  out  of  them  at 
every  touch.  How  common  and  uninteresting  an  objecti 
is  a  shepherd,  in  his  coarse  garb,  surrounded  by  his 
sheep  ;  and  yet  the  Spirit  of  God  has  made  this  figure 
one  of  the  dearest  and  most  suggestive  images  in  the 
whole  range  of  religious  thought.  The  incarnate  God 
Himself  honored  this  name  shepherd,  by  adopting  it.  In- 
spiration has  brought  out  a  vast  range  of  analogies  be- 
tween the  shepherd's  functions  and  the  attributes  and 
ministries  of  the  eternal  Jehovah.  How  this  Psalm  has  i 
worked  itself  into  the  very  texture  of  religious  experience 
and  of  religious  literature  in  all  ages  !  To  how  many  and 
how  various  phases  of  spiritual  need  it  has  ministered 
and  continues  to  minister.  It  has  a  side  for  the  poet,  fori 
the  theologian,  for  the  historian,  for  the  antiquary,  for  the 
naturalist.  Every  variety  of  human  sorrow  flees  to  it  as 
naturally  as  invalids  to  a  healing  spring,  "  The  twenty- 
third  Psalm  is  the  nightingale  of  the  Psalms.  It  is  small, 
of  a  homely  feather,  singing  shyly  out  of  obscurity  ;  but 
O,  it  has  filled  the  air  of  the  whole  world  with  melodious 


54  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

joy  greater  than  the  heart  can  conceive.  Blessed  be  the 
day  on  which  that  Psahn  was  born.  What  would  you  say 
of  a  pilgrim,  commissioned  by  God  to  travel  up  and  down 
the  earth,  singing  a  strange  melody,  which  when  one  heard, 
caused  him  to  forget  whatever  sorrow  he  had  ?  Behold 
just  such  an  one.  This  pilgrim  God  has  sent  to  speak 
in  every  language  on  the  globe.  It  has  charmed  more 
griefs  to  rest  than  all  the  philosophy  of  the  world.  It  has 
remanded  to  their  dungeon  more  felon  thoughts,  more 
black  doubts,  more  thieving  sorrows  than  there  are  sands 
on  the  sea-shore.  It  has  comforted  the  noble  host  of  the 
poor.  It  has  sung  courage  to  the  army  of  the  disap- 
pointed. It  has  poured  balm  and  consolation  into  the 
heart  of  the  sick,  of  captives  in  dungeons,  of  widows  in 
their  pinching  griefs,  of  orphans  in  their  loneliness.  Nor 
is  its  work  done.  It  will  go  singing  to  your  children  and 
my  children  through  all  the  generations  of  time  ;  nor  will  it 
fold  its  wings  till  the  last  pilgrim  is  safe  and  time  ended ; 
and  then  it  shall  fly  back  to  the  bosom  of  God  whence  it 
issued,  and  sound  on,  mingled  with  all  those  soimds  of 
celestial  joy  which  make  heaven  musical  forever."  ' 

No  part  of  human  experience  is  useless.  We  do  in- 
deed, as  we  become  men,  put  away  childish  things,  yet 
many,  of  our  childish  experiences  go  farthest  to  mould 
manhood.  We  are  prone  to  look  upon  our  whole  earlier 
life  merely  as  a  step  by  which  we  mount  to  something 
higher  and  better ;  yet  we  find,  as  we  know  ourselves 
better,  that  we  have  not  left  our  first  days  entirely  behind 
after  all.     David  is  an  illustration  of  this  fact.     His  life 

*  Henry  Ward  Beecher. 


The  Pasture  Gate.  55 

was  a  singularly  varied  one.  He  was  shepherd,  fugitive,, 
court-favorite,  minstrel,  king,  warrior — yet  not  one  of 
these  elements  do  we  miss  in  the  grand  sum  total  of  his 
character,  viewed  as  a  lesson  to  all  ages  and  as  a  power 
of  ministry  to  the  Church.  Least  of  all  do  we  find 
wanting  this  shepherd  experience  of  his  youth.  In  the 
Psalms,  more  perhaps  than  in  any  other  part  of  the  Bible, 
the  thoughts  of  God  in  nature,  and  of  nature  pointing  up 
to  God  are  emphasized  ;  and  David's  utterances  of  this 
kind  are  largely  the  fruit  of  those  early  wanderings  with ! 
his  sheep,  in  green  pastures,  and  by  still  waters,  and  ■ 
through  gloomy  ravines,  in  the  quick  flashing  bursts  of 
the  Eastern  dawn,  and  under  the  gleam  of  the  midnight 
starst  And  if  that  shepherd  life  had  furnished  nothing 
else  than  the  materials  for  this  wonderful  pastoral  ode, 
we  should  all  be  inclined  to  say  that  no  period  of  David's 
history  would  have  compensated  the  Church  for  the  loss 
of  his  shepherd  life.  Yet  the  Psalm  is  not  the  utterance 
of  the  shepherd  days,  though  it  perpetuates  their  memory. 
Had  it  been  thus,  men  might  have  said  that  it  was  but  the 
natural  outflowing  of  a  confiding  boy's  heart,  unversed  in 
care  or  struggle.  But  this  peaceful  idyl  is  a  voice  out  of 
the  maturer  life  of  the  Psalmist ;  out  of  memories  of  care 
and  battle  and  treachery  ;  a  voice  that  tells  that  peace 
and  rest  of  heart  depend  not  upon  the  absence  of  life's  I 
burdens,  nor  on  the  presence  of  nature's  tranquillizing 
scenes,  but  solely  upon  the  shepherding  of  God. 

The  Psalm  centres  in  this  thought  of  God  as  a  shepherd. 
All  its  ideas  and  images  spring  from  this,  and  group  them- 
selves rouhd  it.     Hence  the   key-note  of  the   whole  songi 
is — God's  servant  finds  his  all  in  God.     He  wants' 


56  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

nothing.  All  needs  are  met  for  him  by  that  one  fact—; 
The  Lord  is  my  shepherd.  All  prosperity  is  represented 
to  him  by  the  fact  that  he  is  God's  sheep  in  God's  pastures, 
led  by  God  Himself.  The  problem  of  life  is  thus  reduced 
to  its  very  simplest  statement :  the  statement  of  Christ  in 
the  home  at  Bethany — "  But  one  thing  is  needful."  *  In 
his  prosperity,  David  might  have  said — "  I  have  wealth,  and 
therefore  I  shall  not  want.  I  have  faithful  friends  and  brave 
soldiers,  and  therefore  I  shall  not  want.  I  have  reputation 
and  influence,  and  therefore  I  shall  not  want."  And  in  say- 
ing this  he  would  only  have  said  what  hundreds  of  men  who 
claim  to  be  better  instructed  than  David  are  saying  to-day. 
But  David  goes  to  the  heart  of  the  matter  with  the  discern- 
ment of  the  profoundest  Christian  philosopher;  and  in  these 
two  brief  sentences,  sharply  cuts  out  for  us  the  eternal,  vital' 
truth  that  man  lives  by  God  and  not  by  His  gifts  ;  that 
every  good  gift  and  every  perfect  gift  is  from  above,  from 
the  Father  ;  and  that  the  possession  of  all  gifts  is  included 
in  possessing  the  Father. 

This  being  true,  it  follows  that  the  true  end  of  every 
man's  life  is  to  become  one  of  God's  flock.  And  here,  the 
figure,  while  it  magnifies  the  wisdom  and  tenderness  of 
God,  correspondingly  depreciates  the  wisdom  of  man.  To 
represent  man  by  a  sheep,  is  to  say  that  he  is  a  weak,  silly, 
and  defenceless  creature,  dependent  for  his  well-being  up- 
on the  care  and  protection  of  the  shepherd.  For  a  man' 
to  seek  to  put  himself  under  a  shepherd's  care,  is  for  him 
to  admit  this  fact  in  all  its  length  and  breadth.  The  de- 
pendence of  man  upon  God  must  be  just  as  absolute  as  that 

'  Luke  X,  42. 


The  Pasture  Gate.  57 

of  the  sheep  upon  the  shepherd.  The  guidance  of  the  life 
cannot  be  shared  between  God  and  man,  any  more  than  be- 
tween the  shepherd  and  the  sheep.  Man  is  not  to  choose 
his  own  pastures,  any  more  than  the  sheep  are  to  choose 
theirs.  Hence  it  is  well  for  those  who  study  and  admire  this 
Psalm  for  its  poetry  and  for  its  sweet  sentiments  about  God, 
to  feel  also  the  blow  which  it  strikes  at  human  pride  and  con- 
ceit. It  is  very  charming,  even  for  a  worldly  man,  to  con- 
template this  picture  of  the  divine  Shepherd  by  the  peace- 
ful streams ;  but  such  do  not  find  it  easy  or  pleasant  to 
face  the  thought  of  taking  the  position  of  a  sheep,  with  all 
that  that  position  involves,  even  in  those  green  pastures. 
Whether  accidentally  or  not,  this  twenty-third  Psalm  im- 
mediately follows  what  has  been  called  the  Psalm  of  the 
cross — a  prophetic  description  of  the  sufferings  of  Christ ; 
and  in  the  Christian  application  of  the  truth  we  have  just 
alluded  to,  that  is  significant,  as  expressing  the  fact  that 
man  comes  under  the  superintendence  of  the  heavenly 
shepherd  only  by  the  way  of  the  cross  ;  where,  with  Christ, 
his  pride,  and  self-will,  and  self-righteousness  are  crucified, 
and  he,  like  the  humblest  lamb  in  the  flock,  is  made  will- 
ing to  follow  the  good  Shepherd  who  gave  his  life  for  the 
sheep. 

Yet,  still  carrying  out  the  Christian  application  of  the 
figure,  there  is  a  comforting  assurance  in  the  comparison 
of  man  to  a  sheep.  For  a  sheep  is  not  a  wild  animal. 
The  lion  and  the  bear  are  thrown  upon  their  own  resour- 
ces ;  they  wander  far  from  the  haunts  of  men  ;  they  are 
not  brought  to  the  markets,  nor  herded  in  pastures.  The 
sheep,  on  the  other  hand,  is  associated  with  domestic 
scenes,  the  pet  lamb  is  an  inmate  of  the  farm-yard,  and  tlie 
3* 


58  Gates  into  the  Psalm   Country. 

eye  looks  out  from  the  cottage  window,  upon  the  pasture 
covered  with  flocks.  A  sheep  is  an  object  of  purchase  ; 
and  therefore  an  object  of  pecuUar  care,  because  he  is 
property ;  and  so,  man,  in  accepting  the  position  of  a 
sheep,  comes  into  a  pecuHarly  close  relation  with  God. 
He  forfeits  all  power  over  himself,  but  he  becomes  God's 
own  property  ;  God's  valuable  property,  since  God  shows 
the  value  He  sets  upon  him  by  the  price  at  which  He  buys 
him.  Every  redeemed  soul  in  God's  flock  represents  the 
blood  of  the  only  begotten  Son  of  God  ;  and  this  figure 
therefore  is  strictly  in  the  line  of  the  apostle  Peter's  thought 
— Peter,  the  apostle  whom  we  should  most  naturally  asso- 
ciate with  this  Psalm  because  of  Christ's  charge  to  him  to' 
feed  His  sheep  and  lambs — "  Ye  were  not  redeemed — 
bought  back — with  corruptible  things,  but  with  the  pre- 
cious blood  of  Christ,  as  of  a  lamb  without  blemish  and 
without  spot."  '  Shall  one  thus  purchased  want  anything  ? 
"The  young  lions  </<?  lack  and  suffer  hunger ;  but  they  that 
seek  the  Lord  shall  not  want  any  good  thing."  ^  Shall  the 
love  which  proved  itself  by  the  payment  of  such  a  price 
stop  at  any  minor  gift?  "  He  that  spared  not  His  own 
Son  but  delivered  Him  up  for  us  all,  how  shall  He  not  with 
Him  also  freely  give  us  all  things  ?  "  ^ 

And  now,  knowing  thus  generally  that  God's  sheep  shall 
not  want,  the  Spirit  leads  us  forth  into  the  pastures  to 
take  note  of  some  of  the  supplies. 

And,  first,  our  attention  is  called  to  the  provision  made 
for  two  sides  of  man's  life  in  his  new  relation  to  God.  A 
godly  life,  if  it  be  healthful,  must  be  both  an  active  and  a 

'  I  Peter  i.   i8,  19.  '■^  Psalm  xxxiv.  lo.  '  Romans  viii.  32. 


TJie  Pasture  Gate.  59 

contemplative  life.  In  this  age  we  are  so  constantly  urged 
to  active  life  that  we  are  in  some  danger  of  losing  sight  of 
the  claims  of  the  contemplative  life.  While  it  is  true  that 
no  life  is  more  unhealthful  and  more  fruitful  in  evil  of  some 
kinds  than  the  life  of  the  cloister — the  life  of  pure  contem- 
plation as  it  is  styled — it  is  equally  true  that  the  life  of 
pure  activity  without  contemplation  is  also  unhealthful. 
If  the  one  tends  to  paralysis,  the  other  tends  to  fever. 
There  are  times  when  a  man  needs  to  lie  still,  like  the 
earth  under  the  spring  rain,  letting  the  lessons  of  expe- 
rience and  the  memories  of  the  word  of  God  sink  down 
to  the  very  roots  of  his  life,  and  fill  the  deep  reservoirs  of 
his  soul.  Those  are  not  always  lost  days  when  his  hands 
are  not  busy,  any  more  than  rainy  days  in  summer  are 
lost,  because  they  keep  the  farmer  in-doors.  They  are 
growing  days  ;  and  for  this  side  of  the  godly  man's  life  the 
great  Shepherd  provides  in  His  green  pastures.  He  makes 
His  servant  to  lie  down  there.  There  are  times  when  men 
say  they  are  too  busy  to  stop  \  when  they  think  they  are  do- 
ing God's  service  by  going  on.  Now  and  then  God  makes 
such  an  one  lie  down.  He  has  been  driving  through  the 
pastures  so  fast  that  he  has  not  known  their  greenness  nor 
apprehended  their  sweet  savor ;  and  God  docs  not  mean 
that  he  shall  lose  all  that,  and  so  he  makes  him  lie  down  : 
and  then  the  active,  bustling  man  learns  the  much-needed 
lesson  of  rest  in  the  Lord,  and  of  waiting  patiently  for  Him, 
because  he  can  do  nothing  else  but  rest ;  and  when  he 
once  gets  a  little  over  his  hurry  and  fretting,  and  begins 
to  open  his  eyes  to  the  greenness  of  the  pastures,  he  finds 
that  resting  in  God's  pasture-lands  is  not  such  a  bad  thing 
after  all.      Many  a  man  has  had  to  thank  God  for  some 


6o  Gates  into  the  Psalm   Country. 

such  enforced  season  of  rest,  in  which  he  first  learned  the 
sweetness  of  meditation  on  the  Word,  and  of  lying  still  ir 
God's  hands  and  waiting  God's  pleasure. 

At  the  same  time,  the  Shepherd  provides  for  the  active 
side  of  the  life.  There  is  motion  under  God's  leadership. 
"  He  leadeth  me  beside  the  still  waters."  The  fact  that 
activity  is  an  essential  element  of  a  godly  life,  is  too  famil- 
iar to  need  comment ;  but  we  may  observe  how  it  is  pos- 
sible for  some  of  the  calmness  and  tranquillity  of  the  con- 
templative life  to  perpetuate  itself  in  the  active  life.  There 
are  indeed  times  when  one  stops  beside  the  flowing  stream, 
and  leisurely  surveys  its  beauties  or  disports  himself  in  its 
waters ;  but  even  as  he  goes  on,  he  may  keep  the  stream 
in  sight,  and  be  soothed  by  its  soft  ripple,  and  refreshed 
by  its  varied  scenery.  And  just  so  it  is  possible  for  a  man 
to  make  his  active  life. restful.  He  may  carry  the  atmos- 
phere of  the  closet  into  the  street.  There  is  no  contra- 
diction in  this.  The  Shepherd  promises  to  lead  him  be-i 
side  still  waters  ;  and  those  are  the  deepest  waters.  Christ] 
Himself  says  "  I  will  give  you  rest,"  even  while  He  says  im 
the  same  breath,  "Take  My  yoke  upon  you."  '  This  fev-j 
erish,  hurried  life  which  too  many  of  us  lead,  is  not  in' 
God's  economy,  depend  upon  it.  If  we  live  in  this  way, 
it  is  because  we  push  on  before  the  Shepherd, .instead  of 
letting  him  lead  us  beside  still  waters.  If  we  were  more 
docile,  we  should  be  more  restful. 

Only  when  the  soul  is  brimful  of  the  life  of  faith  does  it 
work  in  rest.  Not  until  we  shall  have  let  our  life  drop 
back   behind  God,  to  follow  at  the  rate  which  He  pre- 

'  Matthew  xi.  aS,  29. 


The  Pasture  Gate.  61 

scribes,  shall  we  learn  what  the  words  mean — "Thou 
wilt  keep  him  in  perfect  peace  whose  mind  is  stayed  on 
Thee."  ' 

Our  errors  in  this  and  in  other  things,  point  us  to  a 
farther  need  for  which  we  find  provision  made  as  we  go 
on  with  the  Psalm  ; — Restoration  ;  "He  restoreth  my 
soul."  Eastern  travellers  tell  us  that  the  shepherd  is 
much  occupied  with  the  straying  sheep.  Only  a  few 
keep  near  him.  The  majority  run  from  bush  to  bush, 
jump  inta  neighboring  fields,  climb  into  leaning  trees 
from  which  they  fall  and  break  their  limbs,  or  wander  to 
great  distances  and  get  lost  among  the  mountain  defiles  ; 
so  that  much  of  the  shepherd's  time  and  care  are  con- 
sumed in  seeking  and  restoring  these  wanderers.  Simi- 
larly, it  is  true,  that  restoration  occupies  a  prominent  place 
in  God's  economy  ;  indeed  it  is  esse?iiially  an  economy 
of  restoration.  Here  we  see  restoration  under  three 
phases;  ist — forgiveness.  It  is  not  too  much  to  S3,y  that 
the  whole  human  flock  is  made  up  of  straying  sheep. 
Even  while  we  sing  :  "  We  are  His  people  and  the  sheep 
of  His  pasture,"  "  we  must  needs  run  into  the  minor  strain 
— "  Have  mercy  upon  me,  O  God,  according  to  Thy  lov- 
ing-kindness. Wash  me  thoroughly  from  mine  iniquity, 
-^nd  cleanse  me  from  my  sin."  ^  It  is  here  that  the  shep- 
herdly  tenderness  of  God  pre-eminently  appears  : — ^just 
here  where  the  world's  shallow  charity  exhausts  itself. 
The  world  will  yield  to  almost  any  prayer  sooner  than 
to  the  prayer  for  forgiveness.  David  might  well  ask  to 
fall  into  God's  hands  rather  than  into  man's  ;  for  .it  is 

'  Isaiah  xxvi.  3.  -  Psalm  c.  3.  "  Psalm  li.  i,  2. 


62  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

man's  way  to  say  "  Let  the  foolish,  headstrong,  conceited 
sheep  reap  the  reward  of  its  folly."  But  hear  how  Psalm 
and  Gospel  answer  to  each  other.  "  He  restoreth  my 
soul."  "  How  think  ye  ?  If  a  man  have  a  hundred  sheep, 
and  one  of  them  be  gone  astray,  doth  he  not  leave  the 
ninety  and  nine  and  goeth  into  the  mountains,  and 
seeketh  that  which  is  gone  astray?  And  if  so  be^hat 
he  find  it,  verily  I  say  unto  you,  he  rejoiceth  more  of 
that  sheep  than  of  the  ninety  and  nine  which  went  not 
astray.  Even  so  it  is  not  the  will  of  your  Father  which 
is  in  Heaven  that  one  of  these  little  ones  should  perish."  ' 
Then  too,  this  restoration  appears  in  the  rest  and  re- 
freshment bestowed  upon  faithful  servants.  Good  men 
become  weary,  not  of  doing  God's  will,  but  in  doing  it. 
Even  Jesus,  whose  meat  was  to  do  the  will  of  Him 
that  sent  Him,  was  faint  at  Jacob's  well.  How  many 
ways  God  has  of  refreshing  the  courage  and  toning  up 
the  enthusiasm  of  His  weary  ones  : — now  by  a  promise, 
now  by  a  well-timed  success,  now  by  a  lightening  of  the 
burden.  What,  for  example,  is  the  Sabbath  but  one  of 
those  green  pastures,  fenced  round  by  a  divine  m'andate — 
"  In  it  thou  shalt  do  no  work."  How  often  the  Lord  re- 
peats to  His  later  disciples  the  invitation  to  the  twelve — 
"  Come  ye  yourselves  apart  into  a  desert  place  and  rest 
awhile."  *  You  remember  how  the  pilgrims  in  Bunyan's 
allegory  went  on  their  way  to  a  pleasant  river,  upon  the 
banks  of  which  they  "walked  with  great  delight;  they 
drank  also  of  the  water  of  the  river  which  was  pleasant 
and  enlivening  to  their  weary  spirits.     On  either  side  of 

'  Matthew  xviii.  12,  14.  -Markvi.  31. 


The  Pasture  Gate.  63 

the  river  was  also  a  meadow,  curiously  beautified  with 
lilies  ;  and  it  was  green  all  the  year  long.  In  this  meadow 
they  lay  down  and  slept,  for  here  they  might  lie  do7vn 
safely.  When  they  awoke  they  gathered  again  of  the 
fruit  of  the  trees,  and  drank  again  of  the  water  of  tho 
river,  and  then  lay  down  again  to  sleep.  Thus  they  did 
several  days  and  nights.     Then  they  sang  : 

Behold  ye  how  these  crystal  streams  do  glide, 

To  comfort  pilgrims  by  the  highway  side  ; 

The  meadows  green,  beside  their  fragrant  smell, 

Yield  dainties  for  them  :  and  he  that  can  tell 

What  pleasant  fruit,  yea  leaves,  these  trees  do  yield, 

Will  soon  sell  all,  that  he  may  buy  this  field." 

Again,  this  restorative  care  comes  in  where  all  care 
but  the  Shepherd's  is  valueless  ; — in  times  of  sorrow.  No 
touch  then  is  so  tender  as  that  of  the  very  staff  whicli 
smites.  And  of  all  these  phases  of  restoration  it  is  to  be 
observed  that  they  are  radical :  they  act  upon  the  springs 
of  the  life.  "  He  restoreth  my  soul — my  life."  Is  it 
forgiveness?  He  puts  "anew  heart "  into  man.  Is  it 
refreshment?  Its  fountain-head  is  rest  of  heart,  is  it 
consolation  ?  His  words  go  deeper  than  the  cold  con- 
ventionalities of  men  ;  they  bring  the  abiding  peace  of 
settled  trust  in  fatlierly  love,  and  of  the  vision  of  eternal 
joy. 

And  the  thought  which  follows  is'  kindred  to  this  re- 
storative econouiy  of  God.  "  He  leadeth  me  in  the 
paths  of  righteousness  for  His  name's  sake."  The  ways 
of  righteousness  or  riglitftess.  God  seeks  to  make  His 
children   right   for   their  own  good,  but  primarily  for  His 


64  Gates  into  the  Psalm   Country. 

glory  ;  for  their  highest  good  is  involved  in  His  be.ng 
glorified.  "Seeing  He  hath  taken  upon  Him  the  name 
of  a  good  Shepherd,  He  will  discharge  His  part,  what- 
ever His  sheep  be.  It  is  not  their  being  bad  sheep  that 
can  make  Him  leave  being  a  good  shepherd,  but  He  will 
be  good  and  maintain  the  credit  of  His  name  in  spite  of 
all  their  badness  ;  and  though  no  benefit  come  to  them 
of  it,  yet  there  shall  glory  accrue  to  Him  by  it,  and  His 
name  shall  nevertheless  be  magnified  and  extolled."  ^  In 
the  man  once  restored,  God  shows  forth  His  own  right- 
eousness. He  makes  him  a  partaker  of  the  divine  nature. 
He  does  more  than  bring  him  back  to  the  fold  ;  his  res- 
toration is  only  the  beginning  of  the  divine  manhood  in 
him.  Nor  does  God  set  Himself  to  develop  some  single 
virtue  merely.  He  leads  him  not  in  one  path,  but  in 
paths  of  righteousness.  The  new  character  permeates  the 
man's  whole  being  and  all  this  is  for  His  Name's  sake  ; 
not  for  man's  glory  :  O,  no  !  What  has  man  had  to  do 
with  the  matter?  All  his  part  has  been,  like  a  wounded 
sheep,  to  lie  still  in  the  Shepherd's  strong  arms,  and  be 
carried  back  to  the  safe  and  peaceful  fold.  All  his  pari 
henceforth  is  to  follow  in  the  paths  where  God  shall  lead 
him.  It  is  for  His  name's  sake  ;  "  that  in  the  ages  to 
come  he  might  show  the  exceeding  riches  of  His  grace  in 
his  kindness  towards  us  through  Christ  Jesus."  "^  It  is  to 
vindicate  His  promise  that  He  will  make  a  grand,  pure, 
efficient  manhood  oiit  of  this  wreck  of  character.  It  is  to 
show  how  His  grace  can  make  a  blazing  beacon  out  of  a 
charred  brand,  a  T43i;.^J  priest  out  of  a  criminal.  ^      How 

Sir  Richard  Baker.  -  Ephesians  ii.  7.  ^  Zecliariah  iii.  2,  5. 


The  Pasture  Gate.  65 

His  wisdom  can  preserve  him  in  temptation,  how  His 
power  can  keep  him  from  falUng,  and  present  him  blame- 
less at  last  before  His  presence.  "  For  Mine  own  sake, 
even  for  Afine  own  sake  will  I  do  it ;  for  how  should  My 
name  be  polluted?  And  I  will  not  give  my  glory  to 
another."  ' 

With  the  fourth  verse,  we  pass  into  another  scene. 
The  recollections  of  the  natural  scenery  amid  which  David 
fed  his  sheep,  give  coloring  to  the  Psalm  and  shape  its  im- 
agery. Often  his  wanderings  had  brought  him  to  one  of 
those  gloomy  ravines  which  penetrate  the  cliffs  overhang- 
ing the  Dead  Sea  :  places  beset  with  dangers  ;  for  here 
the  robber  made  his  haunt,  and  the  beast  of  prey  lurked. 
In  the  figurative  meaning  of  these  words,  the  Psalmist's 
reference  was  not  primarily  to  death.  A  "  valley  of  death  " 
or  of  "death-darkness,"  was  simply  a  very  dark  and  gloomy 
valley ;  but  the  Church  in  all  ages  has  delighted  to  find,  as 
it  rightfully  may,  an  allusion  to  the  last  and  sorest  strait 
of  the  believer — the  agony  of  death  ;  and  these  words 
have  been  quoted  by  more  dying  lips  than  any  ten  texts 
of  Scripture  together.  We  need  not  therefore  try  to  divert 
the  thought  from  this  famihar  channel.  Here  where  he 
most  needs  Him,  God's  child  finds  the  shepherd  with  His 
rod  and  staff.  Let  us  look  at  the  verse  a  little  in  detail. 
"  Yea,  though  I  walk''  It  is  perhaps  a  little  fanciful, 
yet  it  is  a  beautiful  and  comforting  fancy  which  a  modern 
preacher"  has  drawn  out  of  the  English  text: — "Yea, 
though  I  walk.  As  if  the  believer  did  not  quicken  his 
pace  when  he  came  to  die,  but  still  calmly  walked  \n^ 

'  Isaiah  xlviii.  ii.  *  Spurgeon. 


66  Gales  mto  the  Psalm  Country. 

God.  To  walk  indicates  the  steady  advance  of  a  soul 
which  knows  its  road,  knows  its  end,  resolves  to  follow 
the  path,  feels  quite  safe,  and  is  therefore  perfectly  calm 
and  composed.  The  dying  saint  is  not  in  a  flurry.  He 
does  not  run  as  if  he  were  alarmed,  nor  stand  still  as 
though  he  would  go  no  farther ;  he  is  not  confounded  nor 
ashamed,  and  therefore  keeps  his  old  place."  Thus 
Enoch  walked  with  God  ;  and  our  last  glimpse  of  him  re- 
veals him  still  walking  in  the  same  blessed  company,  as 
God  gently  takes  him  out  at  the  gate  which  leads  to 
heaven. 

Then  look  at  the  word  shadow  : — "  the  shadow  of 
death."  Literally  it  means  only  the  darkness  or  shade  : 
and  yet  there  is  a  Gospel  thought  in  the  word.  Suppose 
your  child,  walking  with  you,  should  come  to  the  mouth 
of  a  ravine,  and  should  see  cast  across  it  the  gigantic 
shadow  of  an  armed  man,  at  which  he  should  begin  to  cry 
and  draw  back  in  terror.  And  suppose  that  you  should 
take  him  not  into  the  shadow,  but  around  behind  the 
armed  man,  and  show  how  he  was  chained  fast  to  his  post, 
and  could  not  move  a  step  toward  the  road,  nor  hurl  a 
dart  at  a  traveller.  And  is  not  this  just  what  the  Gospel 
does  for  us  poor  children  of  dust  ? 

' '  We  start  and  fear  to  die  : 

What  timorous  worms  we  mortals  are  ! " 

Our  hearts  grow  cold  as  we  approach  the  entrance  to  the 
valley,  and  we  see  the  shadow  of  gigantic  arms  and  of 
pointed  darts  before  us  in  the  pathway ;  tut  our  blessed 
Shepherd  comes  to  meet  us.  He  sits  down  with  us  there 
at  the  mouth  of  the  valley,  and  tells  us  of  His  fight  with 


The  Pasture  Gate.  67 

the  monster.  He  tells  us  that  He  "  abolished  death  ; "  ' 
that  through  death  He  destroyed  "him  that  had  the  power 
of  death,"  that  He  might  "deliver  them  who  through  fear 
of  death  were  all  their  lifetime  subject  to  bondage."  *  He 
shows  His  child  that  the  monster  is  chained  :  that  he  has 
not  to  encounter  the  dart,  but  only  to  pass  through  the 
shadow:  and  with  this  assurance,  the  "Feeble-minds" 
and  "  Ready-to-halts  "  rise  and  strike  boldly  into  the  dark- 
ness, and  we  hear  them  saying  as  they  pass  from  our  sight — 
"  O  death,  where  is  thy  sting  ?  O  grave,  where  is  thy 
victory  ?  "  ^ 

Nor  does  the  Shepherd  merely  tell  the  story  of  His  own 
victory.  He  does  not  leave  His  follower  to  go  through  the 
valley  alone.  "  Thou  art  with  me  :  Thy  rod  and  Thy 
staff  they  comfort  me."  The  shepherd  carries  with  him  a 
rod  or  crook  to  guide  the  flock  and  to  correct  them  when 
they  are  disobedient,  and  a  stafif  on  which  to  lean.  Both 
these — His  rod  and  His  staff  the  divine  Shepherd  offers  to 
His  people  to  comfort  them  therewith  ;  and  we  must  not 
miss  the  force  of  that  good  old  word  "  comfort."  It  means 
far  more  than  simply  to  console.  It  signifies  to  tone  up 
the  whole  nature,  to  strengthen  a  man  so  that  all  his  en- 
ergy can  be  brought  to  bear.  If  anywhere  he  needs  com- 
fort in  this  sense,  it  is  in  the  valley  of  the  shadow ;  and 
so  God  comforts  him  first  with  His  rod,  the  instrument  of 
correction.  Aye,  comforts  him  with  the  rod:  for  the 
very  afflictions  and  pains  which  wait  about  the  entrance  to 
the  valley  are  God's  messengers  and  instruments  of  per 
fection  to  make  him  meet  for  a  better  inheritance.     Do 

'  2  Timothy  i.  lo.  ^  Hebrews  ii.  14.  '  i  Corinthians  xv.  55. 


68  Gates  into  the  Psalm   Countjy. 

you  remember  those  words  of  God  to  Israel  by  the  prophet 
Ezekiel  ?  "I  will  cause  you  to  pass  under  the  rod,  and  I 
will  bring  you  into  the  bond  of  the  covenant ;  "  '  and  do 
you  know  the  picture  that  was  in  the  prophet's  mind  ? 
He  had  stood  by  one  of  those  stone  enclosures  where-  the 
sheep  are  folded  for  the  night,  and  he  had  seen  the  shep- 
herd stand  by  the  door  as  the  sheep  passed  in,  laying  his 
rod  across  the  entrance  that  they  might  not  crowd  in  so 
rapidly  as  to  prevent  his  counting  them.  Every  sheep 
passes  under  the  tod  before  it  enters  the  fold ;  and  so  the 
shepherd  gets  none  but  his  own  and  all  of  his  own.  So 
stands  the  great  Shepherd  before  the  eternal  gate,  and 
every  one  of  His  chosen  shall  pass  under  the  rod, — the 
rod  which  sometimes  smites  and  bruises,  that,  being  made 
perfect  through  suffering,  they  may  be  counted  among 
them  that  are  sanctified.  And  then,  when  the  rod  has 
done  its  work,  the  staff  is  given.  When  the  pilgrim's  knees 
begin  to  totter,  then  come  "  the  everlasting  arms,"  -  and 
the  strong  staff  makes  firm  his  step,  and  naught  can  shake 
his  foothold  until  he  passes  out  of  the  shadow  into  the 
light  of  heaven. 

The  fifth  verse  develops  a  new  and  interesting  hne^of 
thought  in  setting  forth  the  relations  of  God's  child  to 
those  outside  the  fold  ;  whereas  the  Psalm  thus  far  has 
been  occupied  with  his  relations  to  the  Shepherd.  It  is 
enough  to  say  that  the  relation  to  the  Shepherd  settles 
every  mmor  relation.  The  very,  enemies  of  God  are  com- 
pelled to  acknowledge  the  prosperity  of  His  child.  They 
cannot  molest  him.     They  frown  irapotently  upon  him  as 

'  Ezekiel  xx.  37.  ^  Deuteronomy  xxxiii.  27. 


TJie  Pasture  Gate.  69 

the  robber  might  have  looked  down  upon  the  sheep  feed- 
ing in  the  pastures,  without  the  power  of  annoying  them. 
He  is  without  fear  in  their  very  presence.  He  has  not 
even  to  snatch  his  meal  hurriedly ;  a  table  is  deliberate- 
ly spread  while  they  look  on,  and  the  anointing,  and  the 
overflowing  cup  which  mark  the  ceremonious  welcome  of 
a  guest,  are  bestowed  in  the  presence  of  his  foes.  Even 
so  does  God's  child  feast  on  angels'  food,  while  cares 
eddy  round  him,  and  temptations  beset,  and  slander  wags 
its  tongue,  and  sickness  and  pain  and  misfortune  thrust 
sore  at  him.  Why  should  he  not  rest  and  feast?  The 
Lord  is  his  shepherd.      ^ 

"  Perhaps,"  says  a  recent  expositor  of  the  Psalms,' 
"  there  is  no  Psalm  in  wliich  the  absence  of  all  doubt,  mis- 
giving, fear,  anxiety,  is  so  remarkable."  It  might  be  add- 
ed that  the  sense  of  trustfulness  becomes  more  positive  as 
the  Psalm  proceeds,  until,  in  the  last  verse,  it  culminates  in 
an  exultant  outburst  of  assurance  as  respects  the  writer's 
future  lot.  The  future  is  no  less  secure  than  the  present. 
"  Surely  goodness  and  mercy  shall  follow  me  all  the  days 
of  my  life."  And  note  that  the  basis  of  this  assurance  is 
not  the  fact  that  God  has  allotted  him  his  place  in  green 
pastures,  but  in  the  fact  that  the  Lord  is  his  Shepherd.  He 
clearly  perceives  that  it  may  be  God's  pleasure  to  change 
this  happy  lot  and  to  direct  his  course  into  the  gloomy 
valley  of  the  shadow ;  but  the  goodness  and  the  loving 
kindness  shall  none  the  less  be  his.  Goodness  and  mercy 
do  not  mean  to  God's  child  flowering  meads  and  wells  of 
refreshment  only ;   they  may  equally  mean  rocky  defileS; 

'  Canon  Perowne. 


70  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

and  rough  paths,  and  darkness,  and  enemies.  When  Paul 
promises  the  Corinthians  all  things  in  Christ,  he  couples, 
in  the  most  natural  and  matter-of-course  way,  death  and 
things  to  come,  with  life  and  things  present,  treating  them 
all  alike  as  God's  good  gifts.'  It  is  all  one  so  long  as  they 
are  Christ's.  Goodness  and  loving  kindness,  now  and 
evermore,  are  represented  to  David  simply  by  those  five 
words — The  Lord  is  my  Shepherd.  Darkness,  rough- 
ness, hostility,  will  be  goodness  and  mercy  still,  so  long 
as  they  shall  not  separate  him  from  his  Shepherd's  society, 
guidance  and  comfort.  There  are  dark  rooms  in  God's 
own  house,  in  which  He  appoints  that  His  children  dwell 
sometimes.  It  matters  little  so  long  as  they  are  under 
His  roof.  "  One  thing,"  says  David,  elsewhere,  ''  have 
I  desired  of  the  Lord:  ///^/ will  I  seek  after."*  Not 
sunshiny  days  :  the  Lord  is  my  light.  Not  earthly  secu- 
rity :  the  Lord  is  my  salvation.  Not  human  strength  :  the 
Lord  is  the  strength  of  my  life.  I  need  not  the  beauties 
of  art  or  of  nature,  if  I  may  behold  the  beauty  of  Jehovah. 
I  can  dispense  with  human  wisdom,  if  I  may  inquire  in 
His  temple.  "  One  thing  have  I  desired  of  the  Lord — 
that  I  may  dwell  in  the  house  of  the  Lord  all  the  days  of 
my  life." 

I  know  not  whether  David's  thought  reached  beyond 
this  life.  "  To  him  it  may  have  been  enough  that  he  was 
the  sheep  for  whom  the  Divine  Shepherd  cared,  the  guest 
for  whom  the  Divine  Host  provided."^  Yet  he  may,  on 
the  other  hand,  have  seen  farther  than  we  think.  It  may 
be  that,  in  the  words  of  Calvin,  "  he  shows  in  this  passage 


'  I  Corinthians  iii.  21-23.  '  Psalm  xxvii.  4.  ^  Perowne, 


TJie  Pasture  Gate.  71 

that  ne  lives  least  of  all  in  earthly  pleasures  and  profits, 
but  sets  a  mark  for  himself  in  heaven  to  which  he  refers 
all  things."  Be  that  as  it  may,  in  the  light  of  Christ's 
words  concerning  Himself  as  the  Good  Shepherd,  David's 
words  speak  to  the  Christian  reader  of  heaven  no  less 
than  of  earth.  This  psalm  and  the  tenth  chapter  of  John 
form  two  links  in  a  chain  which  finds  its  completing  link 
in  the  seventh  chapter  of  Revelation — "  Therefore  are 
they  before  the  throne  of  God,  and  serve  Him  day  and 
night  in  His  temple,  and  He  that  sitteth  on  the  throne 
shall  spread  His  habitation  over  them.'  They  shall  hunger 
no  more,  neither  thirst  any  more,  neither  shall  the  sun  ever 
ligiit  upon  them,  no,  nor  any  heat ;  because  the  Lamb, 
which  is  in  the  midst  of  the  throne,  shall  shepherd  them, 
and  shall  guide  them  to  the  fountains  of  the  waters  of  life; 
and  God  shall  wipe  away  every  tear  out  of  their  eyes." 

'  Or,  more  literally,  "  ^iXx pavilion  them." 


THE   REGISTRY   GATE 


PSALM  XXV. 

7.  Remember  not  the  sins  of  my  youth,  nor  my  transgres- 
sions. According  to  Thy  mercy  remember  Thou  me 
for  Thy  goodness'  sake,  O  Lord. 


V. 

THE  REGISTRY    GATE. 

The  true  significance  of  the  present  is  not  revealed  in 
the  present.  The  present  usually  tells  us  only  half  truths, 
and  sometimes  falsehoods.  Time  detaches  our  actions 
from  the  circumstances  which  color  them,  from  the  uncon- 
scious influences  which  give  them  bias,  and  leaves  them 
before  us  in  their  naked  good  or  evil.  Only  the  lapse 
of  years  makes  us  dispassionate  judges  of  our  earlier 
selves. 

And  hence  the  past  often,  perhaps  commonly,  comes 
into  our  maturer  life  as  an  element  of  pain  and  reproach. 
There  is  not  one  of  us  who  has  not  said,  again  and  again — 
"  What  would  I  not  give  to  have  this  or  that  thing  to  do 
over  again  with  to-day's  experience.  How  much  better 
I  would  do  it.  How  differently  I  would  plan  it.  How 
many  things  I  would  omit  from  it." 

This  text  is  such  an  expression.  It  is  the  utterance  of 
a  ripe  and  rich  experience — of  a  man  about  whom  the 
shadows  have  begun  to  lengthen,  and  who  is  letting  a  sor- 
rowful and  faultful  past  come  home  to  his  matured  judg- 
ment, to  be  tried  by  its  higher  standards  and  by  its  clearer 
discrimination. 

And  yet,  with  the  knowledge  we  have  of  David's  youth, 


76  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

>ve  are,  at  first,  astonished  at  the  keenness  of  feeling  man-, 
ifest  in  this  prayer.  So  far  as  we  know,  his  youth  and 
early  manhood  were  comparatively  innocent.  He  had  led 
the  life  of  a  simple  shepherd,  he  had  not  been  spoiled  by 
parental  indulgence,  but  had  rather  been  the  servant  of  a 
family  of  older  brothers.  That  he  had  shown  real  cour- 
age, and  fidelity,  and  piety,  while  yet  an  underling,  his 
history  bears  witness.  That  he  had  meditated  on  the 
glory  of  God  in  nature  appears  from  the  inspired  songs  of 
his  later  life.  That  he  had  undergone  the  discipline  of 
sorrow  and  persecution  before  the  world's  burden  comes 
heavily  on  most  men — we  can  see  for  ourselves.  Why  then 
does  he  so  earnestly  plead  that  the  sins  of  his  youth  be 
not  remembered  by  God  ? 

The  answer  to  this  question  is  to  be  found  in  the  stand- 
point from  which  David  contemplated  his  life  ;  for  while 
the  cool  retrospect  of  a  life  brings  disappointment  and  dis- 
gust to  every  thoughtful  man,  the  nature  and  degree  of 
this  disgust  are  regulated  according  to  the  standard  of 
judgment  which  is  applied.  The  majority  of  men  come, 
sooner  or  later,  to  think  of  themselves  as  fools  in  their 
earlier  years,  but  they  do  not  likewise  come  to  think  of 
themselves  as  sinners.  One  may  look  back  upon  the 
errors  of  his  earlier  life  with  an  amused  chagrin,  coupled 
with  an  easy  tolerance,  as  he  would  view  to-day  the  follies 
of  a  child.  He  may  lament  over  many  a  sinful  deed,  not 
because  of  its  sinfulness,  but  because  he  now  sees  how  it 
afifected  his  self-interest,  impaired  his  health  or  his  foi- 
tune,  or  made  him  a  laughing-stock  where  he  desired  to 
shine.  If  he  has  a  warning  for  another,  it  is  not  based  on 
the  moral  obliquity  of  his  course,  but  on  its  disadvantages. 


TJie  Registry   Gate.  yj 

He  sees  a  youth  indulging  in  drink  or  in  licentiousness, 
and  he  says — "  It  will  not  pay.  Look  at  me  and  take 
warning  lest  you  be  diseased  or  crippled  as  I  am."  He 
does  not  call  on  God  not  to  remember  his  errors,  but  tries 
to  forget  them  himself,  and  is  quite  content  if  he  can  bring 
himself  to  believe  that  they  have  not  impaired  his  social 
standing,  nor  put  farther  pleasure  out  of  his  power. 

And  with  such  views,  one's  retrospect  is,  naturally,  very 
limited  and  partial.  His  rule  of  judgment  is  short,  and  is 
laid  off  in  wide  spaces.  It  measures  only  grosser  errors, 
or  those  which  entail  direct  consequences.  Much  which 
went  to  give  the  most  decisive  bent  and  shape  to  charac- 
ter, is  entirely  overlooked. 

But  when  one  begins  to  review  his  life  from  the  stand- 
point of  his  moral  relation  to  God,  he  sees  through  a  glass 
which  greatly  enlarges  the  range  of  his  retrospect. 
Thoughts  as  well  as  deeds,  intention  as  well  as  perform- 
ance, motive  no  less  than  act — enter  into  his  review. 
Secret  faults  come  under  inspection  with  presumptuous 
sins  :  what  he  is  not,  as  well  as  what  he  is.  His  losses 
are  tried  by  another  standard.  The  result  of  years  of  hon- 
est toil,  his  full  storehouses,  his  pz-aises  on  the  lips  of  men, 
may  seem  as  nothing  beside  the  possible  moral  achieve- 
ments in  which  he  has  failed. 

Thus  it  is  with  David.  He  hints  at  a  page  of  his  ear 
Her  history  which  he  does  not  turn  for  us.  There  have 
been  other  wanderings  in  his  youth  than  those  beside  still 
waters,  concerning  which  he  communes  only  with  God 
and  with  his  own  heart ;  and  whatever  his  youthful  days 
may  seem  to  others,  they  come  back  to  him  laden  with 
experiences  upon  which,  if  it  were  possible,  he  would  shut 


78  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

even  the  memory  of  God.     ''  Remember  not  the  sins  of 
my  youth." 

But  why  does  David  plead  so  earnestly  for  this  ? — for 
this  Psalm-  is  the  cry  of  a  man  in  trouble,  and  burdened 
with  painful  apprehensions.  The  truth  assumed  in  these 
words  is  one  which  concerns  the  character  of  God,  which 
gives  tone  to  this  whole  prayer  of  David,  and  which  it 
very  much  concerns  us  to  see  as  clearly  as  he  did — the 
truth,  namely,  that  God  cannot  h^  passive  in  any  moral 
relation.  If  God's  remembrance  (humanly  speaking)  of 
sin  began  and  ended  with  itself,  if  David's  sins  or  your 
sins  or  mine  were  merely  stored  up  in  the  Divine  mind 
as  an  insignificant  fact  or  date  is  retained  in  our  minds, 
David  had  no  need  to  trouble  himself,  nor  have  we.  But 
sin  cannot  come  to  the  notice  of  God  without  setting 
something  in  motion  against  itself,  any  more  than  the 
poles  of  a  battery  can  be  brought  together  without  start- 
ing an  electric  current.  An  infinitely  and  essentially 
holy  Nature  cannot  be  aware  of  sin,  without  being 
roused  to  active  dealing  with  it.  He  could  not  be 
passive  toward  it  and  remain  true  to  himself.  It  is 
aimed  at  the  pillars  of  His  throne,  it  is  a  challenge  of 
His  sovereignty,  a  departure  from  His  established  order. 
He  must  rouse  himself  either  to  thwart  it,  or  to  punish  it, 
or  to  turn  it,  spite  of  itself,  to  some  beneficent  end,  or  to 
forgive  it.  He  cannot  let  it  alone.  As  a  Lawgiver,  he 
must  take  cognizance  of  violated  law.  As  a  Father,  he 
must  strive  to  restore  an  erring  son.  As  an  administra- 
tor, he  must  anticipate  the  far-reaching  consequences  of 
a  violation  of  moral  order.  For  God  to  remember  sin  is 
to  assume  an  active  and  hostile  relation  to  sin.     When 


The  Registry  Gate.  79 

the  sins  of  men  rise  to  His  presence,  like  the  sun-drawn 
drops  to  the  upper  air,  the  clouds  gather  and  the  thun- 
ders mutter. 

Here  is  where  men  make  such  a  vital  mistake.  They 
are  deceived,  and  mock  God  by  thinking  that  He  can,  by 
any  possibiHty,  be  false  to  His  own  pure  being.  They 
measure  Him  by  their  own  standards,  and  think  that  their 
own  good-natured  tolerance  of  sin  is  mirrored  in  Him. 
You  may  take  a  piece  of  common  window-glass  and  put 
it  in  the  photographer's  camera,  and  let  the  sunbeams 
stream  through  the  lens  upon  it  for  a  week,  and  it  will  be 
as  blank  at  the  end  of  that  time  as  when  you  put  it  in. 
Put  the  coated  plate  in  its  place  for  a  second,  and  the 
smallest  object  is  reproduced  with  a  fidelity  which  bears 
the  test  of  the  microscope.  Perhaps,  if  the  window-glass 
were  conscious,  it  might  wonder  at  the  sensitiveness  of 
the  prepared  plate,  just  as  men  wonder  and  chafe  when 
they  are  told  of  the  sensitiveness  of  Divine  purity  to  the 
slightest  development  of  evil.  "  Why  repel  us,"  they  say, 
"  with  the  picture  of  so  strict  a  God  ?  Why  should  He 
make  so  much  of  what  we  generously  tolerate  in  each 
other  ?  "  Simply  because  His  nature  is  not  like  yours. 
You  think  Him  altogether  such  an  one  as  yourself.  You 
transfer  to  Him  your  own  obtuseness.  You  do  not  see  that 
God's  nature  must,  by  the  law  of  its  own  perfection,  recoil 
from  evil ;  that  He  must  rouse  himself  to  extirpate  it  from 
a  universe  into  which  it  is  an  intruder ;  that  truth  must 
array  itself  actively  against  the  smallest  falsehood,  and 
purity  against  the  faintest  shadow  of  a  stain.  Thus  this 
thought  of  God  remembering  sin,  is  a  pregnant  thought. 
It  means,  not  a  dry  inventory  in  the  Divine  mind,  but  a 


8o  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

stirring  up  of  the  Divine  indignation  ;  a  setting  in  motion 
of  the  recording  angel's  pen,  writing  down  to  the  sinner's 
credit  his  lawful  wages — death.  Well  might  David  pray 
— "  remember  not  the  sins  of  my  youth." 

And  if  we  stop  here,  the  case  is  sad  enough ;  but 
David,  while  he  prays  like  a  man  in  anguish,  prays  also 
like  a  man  in  hope,  with  an  assurance  that  something 
may  yet  be  done  with  those  iniquities  stored  up  in  the 
memory  of  God,  so  that  they  shall  cease  to  trouble  or  to 
threaten  him  any  more.  Being  confronted  with  this 
startling  problem,  he  applies  directly  to  the  only  person 
who  can  solve  it — to  Him  against  whom  he  has  sinned. 

If  a  man  will  once  deliberately  consider  the  outbranch- 
ings  and  consequences  of  a  single  sin,  even  in  the  light 
of  familiar  laws  of  cause  and  effect,  he  will  readily  see 
■what  a  stupendous  problem  is  that  of  forgiveness,  and 
will  echo  the  scribe's  question — "Who  can  forgive  sins 
but  God  only  ?  "  '  For  take  any  single  sinful  act,  such  as 
the  carelessness  and  wantonness  of  youth  often  perpe- 
trate, and  see  how  it  goes  on  multiplying  itself,  setting  in 
motion  evil  forces  which,  in  their  turn,  set  others  in 
motion,  drawing  ever  new  victims  into  the  train  of  con- 
sequences, unaffected,  in  all  physical  results,  by  prayers 
and  tears — and  who  is  bold  enough  to  so  much  as  attempt 
to  trace  out  and  remedy  the  woe  that  has  sprung  up 
along  its  lines  ?  And  when  the  ramifications  of  a  whole 
life  of  sin  are  contemplated,  with  all  their  multiplied 
crossing  and  recrossing  consequences — as  well  attempt 
to  reduce  to  order  a  tropical  jungle.     It  cannot  be  done. 

'  Mark  ii.  7. 


The  Registry  Gate,  8 1 

The  most  ordinary  mind  at  once  discerns  the  impossi- 
bility of  retrieving  and  correcting  the  results  of  a  sinful 
life.  They  are  beyond  the  reach  of  money,  time,  and 
labor.  The  only  course  possible  is  to  put  the  whole 
tin'.ded  mass  into  God's  hands.  This  David  at  once  per- 
ceives, and  to  this  end  he  prays — "  Unto  thee,  O  Lord 
do  I  lift  up  my  soul.  I  know  not  how  the  gigantic, 
hopeless  task  is  to  be  perforzned,  but  I  throw  it  upon 
Thy  wisdom.  Mine  eyes  are  ever  towards  the  Lord, 
for  He  shall  pluck  my  feet  oiit  of  the  net.'' 

And  now,  what  are  we  to  expect  in  answer  to  such  an 
appeal  as  this  ? 

Certainly  not  that  God  will  literally  shut  these  things 
out  of  His  remembrance.  This,  it  need  hardly  be  said,  is 
essentially  impossible.  "  All  things  are,"  and  must  con- 
tinue to  be,  "  naked  and  open  unto  the  eyes  of  Him  with 
whom  we  have  to  do."  ' 

Nor  yet  are  we  to  expect  that  God  \vill  change  His 
attitude  toward  sin.  That  is  unalterably  fixed.  So  long 
as  He  is  God,  He  can  have  but  one  feeling  towards  sin  of 
every  kind  and  degree — utter  loathing. 

But  while  God's  relation  to  sin  remains  fixed  as  the 
principles  of  His  own  being,  His  relation  with-  the  sinner 
may  be  changed.  As  we  have  seen  that  His  remembrance 
of  sin  involves  active  hostility  to  sin,  so  we  may  now  see 
that  His  remembrance  of  the  sinner  involves  all  the  infi- 
nite activity  of  His  love  towards  the  sinner.  "  God  com- 
mendeth  His  love  toward  us  in  that  while  we  were  yet  sin- 
ners Christ  died  for  us." "     The  prodigal's  father  loved 


'  Hebrews  iv.  13.  'Romans  v.  8. 

4* 


82  .  Gates  into  the  Psalm   Country. 

him  no  less  when  he  sat  among  the  swine,  than  when  he 
had  him  at  his  table  with  the  ring  on  his  hand.  It  was 
the  son's  Ibve  and  not  the  father's  that  had  wandered. 
And,  such  being  the  case,  we  may  expect  that  when  a 
man  is  put  in  right  relation  to  this  unchanging  love  of 
God,  that  love  will  put  him  in  some  new  relation  to  his 
old  sins  which  will  suffer  them  no  longer  to  come  between 
God  and  His  child,  and  which  will  be,  to  all  intents 
and  purposes,  as  though  God  had  Hterally  forgotten 
them. 

It  is  on  this  relation  of  God  to  the  sinner  that  David 
throws  himself.  When  he  looks  at  the  sins  of  his  youth, 
he  prays — "  O  Lord,  forget  them."  When  he  looks  at 
himself,  he  cries — "  O  Lord,  remember  me  according  to 
Thy  mercy.  Not  according  to  my  efforts  at  reformation, 
not  according  to  the  depth  of  my  sorrow,  not  according 
to  my  attempts  at  restitution,  but  according  to  Thy  mercy 
remember  Thou  me  for  Thy  goodness'  sake,  O  Lord.  I 
know  that  Thou  frownest  on  the  rampant  passion  of 
youth  :  remember  it  not,  O  Lord ;  but  I  know  that  Thou 
dost  pity  the  weak  and  passion-blinded  youth.  Such  was 
I.  Remember  me,  O  Lord.  I  know  that  Thou  hatest 
self-conceit.  Remember  not  my  foolish  vanity.  But  I 
know  Thy  fatherly  heart  yearns  over  the  straying  son,  who. 
in  his  self-sufficiency,  flees  from  Thy  wise  and  tender 
guidance.  So  did  I.  Remember  me,  O  Lord,  for  Thy 
goodness'  sake,  not  toward  sin,  but  towards  Thine  erring 
children  whose  frame  Thou  knowest  and  rememberest 
that  they  are  dust."  ' 

'  Psalm  ciii.  14. 


The  Registry  Gate.  83 

How  then,  in  answer  to  this  prayer,  will  man  stand  re- 
lated to  the  follies  and  sins  of  his  past  life  ? 

He  will  not  be  entirely  rid  of  their  consequences,  espe- 
cially of  their  physical  consequences.  If  a  youth  of  dis- 
sipation has  undermined  his  health,  God  will  not  work  a 
miracle  and  make  him  sound  again.  If  a  youth  of  indo- 
lence has  made  him  the  inferior  of  men  of  his  own  years 
in  knowledge,  culture,  or  disciplined  power,  the  loss  will 
not  be  fully  made  up. 

Nor  will  God  cease  to  use  the  faultful  past  in  the  new 
man's  education.  He  will  point  His  new  lessons  with  the 
warnings  which  the  old  experience  has  burnt  deep  into 
His  pupil's  memory.  He  will  keep  him  back  from  many 
an  enchanted  ground  by  the  bitter  remembrance  of  old 
bondage  ;  and  He  will  touch  his  lips  with  the  eloquence 
of  sad  experience,  as  He  shall  use  him  to  warn  others 
from  the  way  whose  end  is  death. 

He  will  never  taunt  him  with  the  past.  He  wants  to 
use  the  past  as  a  help  only,  not  as  a  sting.  See  how 
Jesus  dealt  with  Peter, — Peter  the  braggart,  the  swearer, 
the  coward,  the  denier  of  his  Lord.  Christ  had  plainly 
foretold  it  all  to  Peter,  and  yet,  when  the  third  denial  fell 
from  his  lips.  He  did  not  turn  upon  him  and  say — "  I  told 
you  so."  He  only  looked  at  him  and  broke  His  heart. 
And  then,  on  that  memorable  morning  by  the  lake,"  after 
the  resurrection,  what  an  opportunity  for  holding  Peter 
up  to  the  ridicule  of  his  companions,  or  for  recalling  his 
treachery  with  scathing  words  :  and  yet  the  only  hint  of 
the  sorrowful  past  was  conveyed  in  the  question — "  Lovest 

'  John  xxi. 


84  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country, 

thou  Me  more  than  these  ?  "  As  if  He  had  said — "  Have 
you  learned  your  severe  lesson,  or  are  you  still  the  same 
Peter  who  professed  such  surpassing  love  for  Me  ?  " 

And  into  the  heart  there  Avill  come  a  tranquil  rest,  a 
deep  peace,  founded  not  upon  hope  of  retrieving  the  past, 
for  there  may  be  little  time  left ;  but  simply  upon  the 
conviction  that  God  has  taken  the  whole  sadly  confused 
and  stained  life  into  His  own  hands.  Even  while  the 
man  looks  upon  the 

"  Confusions  of  a  wasted  youth," 

and  perhaps  of  a  wasted  manhood,  he  realizes  that  the 
strain  has  passed  over  from  him  to  Christ.  Often  one 
keeps  fighting  in  a  helpless  s-ort  of  vf^ay,  not  because  he 
has  any  real  hope  of  making  good  the  past,  but  because 
he  is  conscientiously  afraid  to  drop  all  concern  about  it : 
and  there  is  blessed  relief  in  giving  over  the  struggle  ;  in 
accepting  the  conclusion  that  it  is  hopeless,  and  that,  if 
the  consequences  of  past  sin  are  to  be  adjusted  at  all, 
God  must  do  it  in  His  own  time  and  way. 

And  with  this  conclusion  there  will  come  a  turning  with 
fresh  zest  to  redeem  the  time  which  remains.  God  says 
to  him  :  "  Forget  the  things  that  are  behind,  even  though 
the  most  of  your  Hfe  is  behind.  In  the  httle  time  that 
remains,  throw  off  the  burden  of  the  past  on  Me  and  press 
forward.' ' 

"  Old  age  hath  yet  his  honor  and  his  toil ; 
Death  closes  all :  but  something  ere  the  end, 
Some  work  of  noble  note  may  yet  be  done. 

The  wise  woman  of  Tekoah  gave    David  good  advict 


The  Registry  Gate.  85 

when  she  bade  him  cease  mourning  for  the  slain  Amnon, 
and  call  home  the  banished  Absalom.  "  We  must  needs 
die,"  she  said,  "  and  are  as  water  spilt  on  the  ground, 
which  cannot  be  gathered  up  again  ;  neither  doth  God 
respect  any  person  ;  yet  doth  He  devise  means  that  His 
banished  be  not  expelled  from  Him.  "  '  Yes,  we  must 
needs  die.  Our  dying,  weak  natures,  unstable  as  water, 
have  proved  their  quality  in  the  abuse  of  past  years  ; 
yet  God,  for  that  reason,  will  not  cut  off  the  opportunities 
that  remain.  He  forbids  you  to  seek  the  living  among 
the  dead.  He  tells  you  not  to  pass  the  days  that  are 
left  in  mourning  over  what  is  dead,  but  to  spend  them  in 
coming  back  from  your  banishment,  through  the  faithful 
use  of  the  means  which  His  infinite  grace  has  devised. 

Hither  then  we  bring  the  past.  Into  these  skilful 
hands  we  may  put  the  hopelessly  entangled  mesh,  wet 
with  penitent  tears,  and  turn  our  faces  peacefully  and 
firmly  to  the  future,  as  we  hear  our  justly  offended  but 
still  loving  Father  saying  :  "  I  will  be  merciful  to  their 
unrighteousness,  and  their  sins  and  their  iniquities  will  I 
remember  no  more."^  God  only  can  adjust  the  past. 
Whether  you  know  and  believe  it  or  not,  the  element  of 
bitterness  in  it,  the  thing  which  makes  it  a  burden,  is 
sin  ;  and  for  sin  there  is  but  one  remedy.  That  which 
has  made  all  other  relations  ineffective  or  disastrous,  has 
been  the  want  of  a  juoper  relation  to  God.  The  great 
thing  now,  the  immediate,  pressing  duty,  is  to  get  into  a 
right  relation  with  Him. 

Look  forward  therefore.    Hear  the  apostle  responding 

'  2  Samuel  xiv.  14.  *  Hebrews  viii.  12. 


86  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

to  the  son  of  Jesse  :  "  Forgetting  those  things  which  are 
behind,  and  reaching  forth  unto  those  things  which  are 
before,  I  press  toward  the  mark  for  the  prize  of  the  high 
calhng  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus."  '  The  high  caUing.  Yes, 
God  is  caUing  us  from  the  low  ground  of  tears,  from  the 
heavy  atmosphere  of  sighs,  from  a  dead  past,  up  to  the 
high  table -lands  of  a  present  full  of  work  and  of  aspiration. 
We  have  made  mistakes  :  then  let  us  remember  that,  in 
the  stirring  words  of  Robertson,  "  Life,  like  war,  is  a 
series  of  mistakes  ;  and  he  is  not  the  best  Christian  nor 
the  best  general  who  makes  the  fewest  false  steps.  Poor 
mediocrity  may  secure  that ;  but  he  is  the  best  who  wins 
the  most  splendid  victories  by  the  retrieval  of  mistakes. 
Forget  mistakes.     Organize  victory  out  of  mistakes." 

You  are  not  what  you  desire  to  be  ;  not  what  you 
ought  to  be.  But  why  look  back  ?  If  God  is  ready  to 
forget  the  sins  of  your  youth,  why  may  not  you  leave 
them  behind  also  ?  If  there  is  any  good  in  store  for  you, 
it  lies  on  before. 

Granting  your  attainments  were  ever  so   great,   they 

would  not  win  you  the  prize.    If  you  shall  ever  be  admitted 

to  the  Lamb's  marriage  feast,  it  will  be  in  borrowed  robes, 

in  Christ's  righteousness,  not  in  yours.     You  can  do  but 

I  one  thing,  look  unto  Jesus  and  go  forward. 

One  may  be  sadly  saying  to-day,  "  It  is  too  late.  My 
cheek  is  furrowed,  my  hair  is  white,  the  days  of  my 
strength  are  gone,  and  they  have  been  given,  not  to  God, 
but  to  the  world.  I  have  but  a  few  withered  stalks  to 
bring  to  the   Lord  of  the  harvest."     Well,  it  is  sad,  but 

'  Philippians  iii.  13,  14. 


The  Registry  Gate.  87 

then  it  is  done.  You  cannot  bring  back  past  time  now, 
and  for  the  time  which  remains,  ivhich  is  the  better 
course — to  stay  in  that  old  past,  rummaging  amid  its 
biioken  plans  and  distorted  forms  for  a  little  comfort  and 
self-gratulation,  or  to  leave  it  all  in  the  hands  of  a  tender, 
pitying  Christ,  and  to  let  Him  send  you  forth  to  the  vine 
yard  at  the  eleventh  hour  ?  Surely  the  latter  is  the  bet- 
ter course.  Begin  to  press  forward,  and  it  may  yet  be 
with  you  as  sometimes,  after  a  day  of  dark  clouds,  and 
howling  wind,  and  driving  rain,  just  at  eventide  the  veil 
lifts  itself  from  the  gloomy  west,  and  the  sun  goes  down 
in  a  glory  of  purple  and  gold,  which  sets  the  dark  pines 
on  fire,  and  bathes  the  frowning  rocks  with  splendor. 
Jesus  can  fill  these  later  hours,  free  from  the  heat  of' 
youthful  passion  and  of  wild  ambition,  with  tranquil  hope, 
with  holy  joy,  aye,  and  with  some  good  work  which  may 
yet  leave  the  world  the  richer  for  your  having  lived. 


THE   TREASURY    GATE. 


PSALM  XXXI. 

(19.)  Oh  how  great  is  Thy  goodness,  which  thou  hast  laid  up 
for  them  that  fear  Thee  ;  which  Thou  hast  wrought 
for  them  that  trust  in  Thee  before  the  sons  of  men. 


VI. 

THE  TREASURY  GATE. 

When  a  man  searching  for  metals  lights  upon  a  frag- 
ment of  gold  or  copper  or  iron  ore,  he  is  apt  to  conclude 
that  the  fragment  is  part  of  a  larger  mass — a  metallic  vein. 
The  same  is  true  of  the  words  of  Scripture.  We  find 
everywhere  single  verses  which  sparkle  with  truth,  single 
words  heavy  with  Divine  meaning ;  but  closer  examina- 
tion shows  that  they  belong  to  great  veins  of  truth,  and 
lie  in  the  line  oi  great  principles  of  God's  administration. 
This  text,  for  instance,  is  the  expression  of  a  divine  law : 
the  law  of  God's  wise  reserve  in  dispe?tsing  His  favors. 
He  does  not  reveal  Himself,  nor  bestow  His  blessings, 
nor  develop  His  purposes,  nor  mature  His  plans  all  at 
once.  This  latter  is  what  an  ignorant  and  vulgar  con- 
ception of  God  would  demand.  To  some  minds  the 
highest  ideal  of  God  would  be  a  magician,  after  the  pat- 
tern of  Aladdin's  genius,  who  should  gratify  every  mon- 
strous wish  for  the  asking,  and  accomplish,  with  a  touch, 
the  results  of  years  of  human  labor. 

The  God  of  Scripture  is  not  such  as  this.  Whether  in 
nature  or  in  providence,  we  see  God  revealing  Himself 
through  processes.  In  the  revolution  of  the  year,  we  see 
a  progress  of  the  seasons  from  the  cold  and  apparent 
deadncss  of  winter,  to  the  rich  fruitfulness  laid  up  in  the 
heart  of  the  autumn.     Man  advances  to  the  inheritance 


92  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

of  the  powers  and  enjoyments  of  manhood  by  slow  grada- 
tions, from  a  feebleness  and  helplessness  compared  with 
which  the  infancy  of  a  dog  or  of  a  horse  is  robust  vigor. 
God's  great  plans  in  the  administration  of  the  world  con- 
sume centuries.  Christ  did  not  come  until  the  fulness 
of  time  had  arrived ;  and  Christ  himself  illustrated  the 
growth  of  God's  kingdom  in  the  world  by  the  slow  pro- 
cesses of  vegetation.  Thus,  at  each  season  of  the  year, 
at  each  human  birthday,  at  each  stage  of  the  world's  his- 
tory, there  is  something  still  in  reserve ;  something  laid 
up  /  something  which  God  holds  back  because  the  time  is 
not  ripe. 

Here  we  have  a  single  application  of  this  principle  to 
our  personal  experience  of  God's  goodness.  "  How 
great  is  Thy  goodness  which  Thou  hast  laid  up  for  them 
that  fear  Thee."  The  words  "  laid  tip  "  literally  mean 
"  hidden ; "  and  the  verse  may  be  construed  in  two 
senses,  which,  however,  often  blend  in  one  thought.  The 
first  sense  is — that  God's  best  gifts  are  peculiarly  the 
treasure  of  those  who  fear  Him.  They  are  laid  up  or 
hidden  from  the  rest  of  the  world,  just  as  a  rich  father  lays 
up  a  fortune  for  his  child  and  for  him  only.  They  are  as 
a  secret  between  God  and  his  child ;  as  the  Psalmist  else- 
where says — "  The  secret  of  the  Lord  is  with  them  that 
fear  Him."  '  It  was  this  side  of  the  thought  which  Christ 
expressed  when  he  said,  "  I  have  meat  to  eat  which  ye 
know  not  of"  "^ — and  which  is  also  conveyed  in  the  prom- 
ise, "  To  him  that  overcometh  will  I  give  to  eat  of  the 
hidden  manna."  ^ 

■  Psalm  XXV.  14.  -John  iv.  32.  ^  Revelation  ii.  17. 


The   Treasury  Gate.  93 

The  other  sense  is  in  the  line  of  the  general  principle 
we  have  illustrated  ;  namely,  that  in  the  distribution  of 
His  blessings  to  His  children,  God  follows  a  law  of  re- 
serve. He  gives  liberally,  but  not  the  whole.  He  keeps 
something  always  in  the  background ;  there  is  always 
something  better  in  store  for  those  who  fear  Him.  There 
is  in  His  word,  His  promises,  His  providences  a  hidden 
element  which  comes  out  only  through  time,  and  experi- 
ence, and  search,  and  diligent  effort. 

The  case  cannot  be  otherwise.  Reverently  speaking, 
according  to  the  laws  which  God  Himself  has  stamped 
upon  our  being,  He  cannot  deal  otherwise  with  us. 
There  are  certain  great  blessings  of  God  which  no  man 
is  able  to  receive  at  once,  without  preparation.  In  re- 
spect of  this,  the  law  is  not  different  in  the  spiritual 
region  from  the  law  in  ordinary  life.  There  are,  for  in- 
stance, great  treasures,  rich  enjoyments,  grand  powers 
laid  up  for  the  schoolboy  in  the  realm  of  knowledge  and 
culture  upon  which  he  is  just  entering  ;  but  his  teacher 
cannot  put  him  in  possession  of  them  at  once.  He  must 
gain  the  preparatory  discipline  first ;  the  rudimentary 
knowledge  without  which  all  that  lies  be)'ond  would  be 
useless.  So  the  judicious  executor  has  a  rich  fortune  in 
store  for  his  ward ;  but  he  cannot,  with  safety  to  the 
child,  put  him  in  possession  of  his  fortune  without  ruining 
both  him  and  the  fortune.  He  must  be  prepared  by 
education  and  by  contact  with  the  world  to  administer 
his  affairs  before  he  can  enjoy  his  wealth.  God  had  a 
wonderful  work  to  do  in  the  home  of  that  widow  whose 
cruse  of  oil  the  prophet  replenished  : ' — a  wonderful  token 

'  2  Kings  iv.  1-7. 


94  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Countfy. 

of  His  goodness  laid  up  for  the  widow — but  she  was 
not  ready  for  it.  She  had  not  vessels  enough  to  receive 
God's  gift,  and  so  the  gift  was  held  back  until  she  should 
have  borrowed  from  her  neighbors.  In  like  manner 
there  are  a  good  many  of  God's  blessings  which  are  ours, 
field  by  Him  for  us,  but  which  He  cannot  give  us  yet 
because  we  are  not  ready  to  receive  them.  They  belong 
to  a  later  point  of  our  experience.  It  would  have  been 
useless  to  take  the  Israelites  out  of  Egypt  and  to  set  them 
down  at  once  in  the  Promised  Land.  They  were  not  fit 
to  enter  at  once  upon  the  privileges  and  duties  of  citizen- 
ship. Just  so  there  are  certain  gifts  of  God  which  mark 
your  life  to-day,  certain  duties,  the  discharge  of  which 
is  your  highest  joy,  certain  responsibilities  under  the  pres- 
sure of  which  your  manhood  ripens  and  grows,  which  you 
can  very  plainly  see  did  not  belong  to  an  earlier  period. 
You  were  not  fii  to  discharge  the  duties,  nor  to  bear  the 
responsibilities.  There  are  certain  views  of  truth  in 
which  you  greatly  rejoice,  which  you  count  it  among  the 
best  gifts  of  God  to  have  had  revealed  to  you :  and  yet 
you  can  see,  perhaps,  that  it  was  far  better  the  revelation 
should  have  been  delayed.  You  can  understand  our 
Lord's  words  to  the  disciples — "  I  have  yet  many  things 
to  say  unto  you,  but  ye  cannot  bear  them  now."  '  You 
can  see  that  the  truth  was  one  which  it  needed  some  ex- 
perience to  use  rightly  ;  that  it  has  sides  which  you  might 
have  magnified  unduly  and  pressed  so  as  to  do  harm 
rather  than  good.  In  short,  it  was  an  instrument  which 
God   kept  laid  up  for  you,  and  did  not  give  into  your 

'  John  xvi.  12. 


The   Treasury  Gate.  95 

hands  until  some  preparatory  discipline  and  experience 
had  fitted  you  both  to  use  and  to  enjoy  it. 

And  it  ought  not  to  be  forgotten,  moreover,  that  a  part 
of  this  preparation  depends  upon  ourselves ;  and  that 
therefore  it  is  sometimes  our  fault  that  the  laid-up  good- 
ness is  kept  back.  If  we  neglect  the  preparation,  we  shall 
fail  of  the  blessing,  just  as  the  widow  might  have  thwarted 
the  prophet's  intended  kindness  by  refusing  to  borrow  the 
vessels.  A  professing  Christian,  for  instance,  says — "  I  wish 
I  enjoyed  the  public  and  social  church  service  more  than 
I  do.  I  fairly  envy  the  keen  delight  with  which  my  neigh- 
bor in  the  next  pew  enters  into  song  and  sermon,  and 
prayer.  I  have  no  fault  to  find  with  the  preaching  ;  I  sup- 
pose it  is  good  enough,  but  I  don't  enjoy  my  church  priv- 
ileges as  I  suppose  I  should."  Well,  you  know  David 
was  a  man  who  especially  enjoyed  the  sanctuary.  You 
know  how  he  pined  after  it  when  he  was  in  exile  ;  how, 
even  when  he  was  hiding  from  Saul  in  the  cave,  he  de- 
clared that  he  would  praise  the  Lord  among  the  people 
and  sing  praises  among  the  nations/  He  will  tell  you  in 
the  fifty-seventh  and  one  hundred  and  eighth  Psalms  the 
secret  of  his  enjoyment.  "  O  God,  my  heart  is  fixed  [liter- 
ally prepared\  I  will  sing  and  give  praise,  even  with  my 
glory."  ^  Continually  we  are  hearing  this  cry  from  church- 
goers— "We  are  not  interested : "  as  if  forsooth  the  preach- 
ing of  the  word  and  the  social  means  of  grace  must  take 
them  up  bodily  like  so  many  children,  and  interest  them 
whether  they  will  or  not.  Too  much  of  the  burden  is  shifted 
from  the  right  shoulders.   If  the  pulpit  and  the  prayer-meet- 

'  Psalm  Ivii.  9.  '  Psalm  cviii.   i. 


g6  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

ing  are  justly  chargeable  in  some  instances  vvitli  the  failure 
to  interest,  the  difficulty  is  quite  as  often  that  men  and 
women  come  to  their  ministrations  with  unprepared  hearts, 
depending  upon  these  to  lift  them  as  so  much  dead  weight, 
and  to  strike  fire  out  of  their  iciness.  Of  course  they  do 
not  receive  the  goodness  which  God  has  laid  up  for  them 
in  His  temple  ;  the  interest  is  all  outside  of  themselves  ; 
there  is  no  responsive  interest  in  themselves.  I  have 
noticed  when  travelling  among  the  woods  and  mountains 
that  when  a  man  was  really  thirsty,  he  was  not  very  fini- 
cal about  the  particular  way  of  getting  a  drink.  If  he  had 
a  silver  drinking-cup  with  him,  he  used  it  of  course  ;  but 
he  seemed  to  drink  with  no  less  relish  when  he  had  to  use 
a  tin-cup,  or  a  cow-horn,  or  even  to  lie  flat  down  on  the 
bank  and  drink  from  the  stream  itself.  The  amount  of  it 
was,  he  was  thirsty  ;  and  people  will  not  drink  pure  water 
when  they  are  not  thirsty  ;  they  want  something  sweetened 
or  spiced  to  tickle  the  palate.  Only  let  our  churches  be 
filled  with  souls  thirsting  for  the  goodness  which  God  has 
laid  up  for  them  in  His  word  and  ordinances,  and  there 
will  soon  be  interest  enough. 

God  really  consults  for  our  pleasure  by  His  judicious 
reservation  of  His  bounties.  You  take  a  child  to  a  cabinet 
Ayilh  six  drawers  full  of  pictures  and  curiosities,  and  give 
him  the  keys  of  the  whole  six,  and  let  him  rummage  them 
all  in  one  morning,  and  he  will  be  one  of  the  unhappiest 
of  children.  Allow  him  to  open  only  one  each  day,  oi 
every  two  days,  and  you  heighten  his  pleasure.  He  en 
joys  more  deliberately.  He  finds  more  in  each  drawer 
than  he  would  in  a  morning's  overhauling  of  the  whole  six. 
Men,  like  children,  are  often  disposed   to  want  all  their 


TJie   Treasicry  Gate.  97 

happiness  at  once ;  and  often,  when  God  does  send  a 
blessing,  they  are  so  annoyed  because  He  did  not  send 
something  more,  that  they  do  not  half  enjoy  what  they 
have.  Yet  God  was  wiser  than  they  in  kee[)ing  something 
laid  up.  You  would  not  enjoy  travelling  over  a  long  road 
where  all  the  beautiful  scenery  was  crowded  into  the  first 
mile,  leaving  twenty  miles  of  barren,  flat,  dismal  country. 
When  you  visit  Niagara  Falls,  the  whole  scene  comes  to 
you  at  once.  In  a  glance  you  take  in  the  American  fall, 
and  Goat  Island,  and  the  Horseshoe,  and  both  rapids, 
and  the  green,  swirling,  foam-streaked "  river  below.  And 
yet  not  a  few  people  prefer  the  quieter  and  gradually  un- 
folding beauty  of  Trenton,  where  you  wind  your  way  up 
the  stream  through  a  succession  of  fresh  and  gradually 
opening  views,  coming  ui)on  fall  after  fall,  at  once  charmed 
with  the  present  scene,  and  lured  on  by  the  roar  of  waters 
to  new  beauties  beyond.  Similarly,  God  makes  a  happier, 
a  more  beautiful  life  for  us  by  keeping  a  part  of  our  bless- 
ings laid  up  in  store,  by  distributing  them  over  a  larger 
surface,  by  mixing  them  up  with  sadder  experiences,  thus 
at  once  tempering  the  sadness,  and  keeping  prosperity 
from  making  us  unruly. 

Another  of  God's  designs  in  this  policy  of  reservation,  is 
to  stimulate  us  to  effort.  No  one  can  study  the  Scriptures 
long  without  seeing  that  God's  gifts  are  to  be  sought  for. 
If  our  joy  is  to  be  full,  it  is  on  condition  that  we  ask. 
Christ's  disciples  were  rebuked  because  they  had  asked 
nothing.  And  there  is  this  peculiarity  about  God's  bless- 
ings, lliat,  while  they  satisfy  the  present  need  they  create 
jieio  needs,  and  slinuilate  to  fresh  search  and  asking.  The 
Arabian  story  tells  of  the  young  prince,  who,  having  squan- 


98  Gates  into  the  Psalm   Coimtry. 

dered  his  patrimony  in  dissipation,  was  directed  in  a  vision 
to  dig  up  the  floor  of  his  chamber ;  and  on  domg  so  dis- 
covered a  subterranean  apartment.  On  exploring  this,  he 
found  an  urn ;  and  on  opening  the  urn  discovered  a  key. 
This  set  him  looking  for  the  lock  to  which  the  key  be- 
longed, and  having  at  last  discovered  a  secret  door  in  the 
wall,  he  opened  another  chamber  containing  eleven  stat- 
ues of  pure  gold,  and  a  pedestal  for  a  twelfth,  with  an  in- 
scription bidding  him  search  for  the  remaining  statue. 
Even  so  each  blessing  of  God  reveals  another  on  beyond, 
by  revealing  the  need  of  another.  When  you  shall  receive 
a  gift  which  leaves  you  no  wish  but  to  sit  down  and  enjoy 
it,  you  may  seriously  question  whether  that  gift  is  a  bless- 
ing from  God  ■  since  God's  blessings  always  point  to  the 
goodness  that  is  laid  up.  We  have  the  truth  illustrated  in 
Paul's  experience.  It  was  a  wonderful  display  of  God's 
goodness,  when  he  was,  as  he  puts  it,  "grasped"  or 
"  seized  "  by  Christ  ^ — snatched  from  his  narrow  Jewish 
prejudices  and  from  his  enmity  to  Christ  and  to  His 
church.  "  But,"  he  says,  "  there  was  something  to  be 
attained  after  that.  I  count  not  myself  to  have  ap- 
prehended. When  Christ  laid  hold  of  me.  He  lifted 
me  to  a  height  from  which  I  discovered  new  spiritual 
treasures  to  be  won,  larger  knowledge  of  heavenly  things, 
new  enemies  to  be  subdued ;  and  so  I  forget  the  things 
which  are  behind,  and  press  towards  the  mark  for  the 
prize  of  my  high  calling  ;  for  God  is  calling  me  higher 
and  higher,  even  unto  heaven."  He  was  like  a  man 
who   climbs   a  peak   and   looks  out  over  a  new  conti- 

'  Philippians  iii.  12. 


The  Treasury  Gate.  99 

nent,  full  of  goodness  laid  up.  Take  your  own  experience. 
Go  back  to  the  beginning  of  your  Christian  life.  How 
joyful  was  the  sense  of  forgiven  sin.  How  your  whole 
heart  went  out  in  the  words  of  the  oldPsalm^ — "Bless  the 
Lord,  O  my  soul,  and  all  that  is  within  me  bless  His  holy 
name,  who  forgiveth  all  thine  iniquities."  '  Yet  how  long 
was  it  before  that  very  experience  set  you  seeking  for 
fresh  displays  of  His  goodness  ?  It  had  set  you  on  a 
track  where  there  was  daily  work  to  be  done  as  well  as 
pardoning  love  to  enjoy ;  and  you  must  needs  draw  on 
the  goodness  laid  up  for  wisdom  to  map  out  your  work, 
and  for  strength  to  prosecute  it.  Then,  when  you  had 
gotten  that,  you  found  that  your  work  led  you  into  dark 
places,  and  brought  you  face  to  face  with  hard  problems, 
and  you  were  getting  weary  and  discouraged  and  sorrow- 
ful ;  and  there  came  a  large  draft  on  the  goodness  laid  up, 
for  patience,  for  sympathy,  for  comfort,  for  victory  ;  and  so 
it  has  been  all  along  the  course  ;  one  experience  has  led 
the  way  to  another,  and  each  succeeding  one  has  devel- 
oped new  demands  upon  the  goodness  laid  up,  and  new 
and  ever  richer  revelations  of  that  goodness. 

Illustrations  of  this  principle  of  reserve  are  seen  par- 
ticularly in  God's  promises,  and  in  His  providences. 

A  promise  of  God  seems  a  very  simple  thing  at  first 
view.  So  does  an  acorn.  No  one  who  did  not  know 
the  facts  of  vegetable  life  would  dream  that  there  is  an 
oak  tree  enfolded  in  it.  In  a  single  promise  are  folded 
an  infinite  variety  of  provisions  and  adaptations,  laid  up, 
and  not  manifesting  themselves  until   they  are  wanted. 

'  Psalm  ciii. 


lOO  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

It  is  very  much  like  the  tent  about  which  we  used  to  read 
in  the  fairy  story,  which  could  be  shut  up  in  the  hand, 
and  yet  could  be  spread  out  on  occasion  so  as  to  cover 
a  whole  army.  When  a  man  takes  a  promise  into  bis 
life,  he  finds  it  continually  developing  unsuspected  re- 
sources. It  comes  in  to  help  and  to  comfort  him  at  points 
where  he  never  dreamed  it  could  be  of  any  service  to 
him.  It  is  something  as  when  an  inexperienced  traveller 
goes  out  for  an  excursion  among  the  Alps,  and  is  bidden 
to  take  a  rope  with  him.  He  does  not  exactly  see  what 
he  is  going  to  want  with  it,  but  when  he  gets  upon  a 
snow  slope,  the  guide  ties  him  to  himself  with  the  rope ; 
and  when  he  slips  into  a  crevasse,  he  finds  that  the  rope 
is  all  there  is  between  him  and  death.  They  come  to  a 
steep  ledge,  and  the  rope  is  in  demand  again.  They  set 
up  their  mountain  tent  for  the  night,  the  rope  comes  into 
play.  That  traveller  finds  out  how  many  uses  are  laid  up 
in  a  rope  before  he  gets  back  to  his  lodging.  He  never 
will  think  of  going  into  the  mountains  again  without  one. 
So  a  Christian  takes  a  familiar  promise  like  "  cast  thy 
burden  on  the  Lord,  and  He  shall  sustain  thee.  He  shall 
never  suffer  the  righteous  to  be  moved." '  When  his  first 
little  trial  or  sorrow  comes,  he  falls  back  on  his  promise, 
and  he  finds  that  it  answers  perfectly.  By  and  by  troubles 
thicken,  and  burdens  grow  heavier,  and  he  looks  round 
for  a  promise,  and  the  old  one  falls  under  his  hand  again ; 
and  he  is  surprised  to  find  that  it  does  not  bend  under 
the  heavier  load.  And  again  troubles  come  in  an  ava- 
lanche.    Not  only  are  resources  and  friends  gone,  but  he 

'  Psalm  Iv.  22. 


The   Treasury  Gate.  lOi 

is  broken,  and  he  lies  a  helpless  wreck,  with  hardly 
strength  to  grope  round  for  a  promise ;  and  when  he 
does,  he  lights  on  "  he  shall  sustain  thee  ;  "  and  somehow 
it  never  seemed  so  large  and  so  strong  before  ;  and  he 
finds  that  the  same  promise  which  held  up  his  first  little 
care,  now  bears  up  the  whole  mountain  of  sorrow,  and 
the  dead  weight  of  his  poor  wrecked  self  into  the  bargain. 
And  sometimes  Christians  go  for  a  good  while  in  trouble 
through  not  realizing  what  riches  of  goodness  are  laid  up 
for  them  in  a  familiar  promise.  They  are  like  a  foreigner 
who  walks  our  streets  weak  and  hungry,  and  who  does 
not  know  the  value  of  the  five  dollar  bill  hidden  in  his 
pocket.  It  is  with  a  shock  of  surprise  that  it  now  and 
then  comes  to  you  as  you  read  that  old  promise — "why 
that  means  me  !  "  When  Christian  and  Hopeful  strayed 
out  of  the  path  upon  forbidden  ground,  and  found  them- 
selves locked  up  in  Despair  Castle  for  their  carelessness, 
there  they  lay  for  days,  until  one  night  they  began  to 
-i)ray.  "  Now  a  little  before  it  was  day,  good  Christian,  as 
one  half  amazed,  broke  out  in  this  passionate  speech : 
'What  a  fool,'  quoth  he,  'am  I,  thus  to  lie  in  a  stinking 
dungeon,  when  I  may  as  well  walk  at  liberty.  I  have  a 
key  in  my  bosom  called  promise,  that  will,  I  am  per- 
suaded, open  any  lock  in  Doubting  Castle.'  Then  said 
Hopeful,  ' That's  good  news,  good  brother;  pluck  it  out 
of  thy  bosom  and  try.'  Then  Christian  pulled  it  out  of 
his  bosom,  and  began  to  try  at  the  dungeon  door,  whose 
bolt  gave  back,  and  the  door  flew  open  with  ease,  and 
Christian  and  Hopeful  both  came  out."  And  what  is 
true  of  the  promises  may  be  applied  to  the  whole  word. 
Away  back   in  David's   time  men  were  praising  God  foi 


102  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

the  treasures  laid  up  in  His  word  ;  and  the  centuries  have 
passed  on,  and  learning,  and  genius,  and  piety  have  been 
digging  in  this  mine  all  the  while.  There  never  was  so 
much  known  about  the  word  of  God  as  there  is  to-day, 
and  yet  never  was  there  such  stimulus  to  farther  research  : 
we  cannot  exhaust  it.  It  is  a  fountain  fed  by  eternal 
springs : 

"  Its  streams  the  whole  creation  reach, 
So  plenteous  is  the  store  : 
Enough  for  all,  enough  for  each, 
Enough  for  evermore  P^ 

Again,  God's  goodness  is  laid  up  in  His  providences. 
Their  meaning  is  not  grasped  at  once,  and  their  result  is 
not  reached  at  once.  One  of  God's  dispensations  seems 
like  a  single  act : — a  blow,  a  rending  asunder,  a  blight,  a 
wreck,  and  it  is  done  ;  that  is  the  end  of  it ;  let  us  get 
over  the  consequences  as  we  may.  That,  I  say,  is  the 
short-sighted  human  view  of  the  matter ;  but  that  is  not 
the  end  of  it.  That  single  dispensation  has  a  wide  range. 
It  is  in  many  parts ;  and  the  man  who  patiently  follows 
God  along  its  line,  will  see  it  unfold  into  new  meanings 
and  new  bearings  upon  his  life. 

"  His  purposes  will  ripen  fast, 
Unfolding  every  hour." 

I  am  not  so  sure  about  the  fast  ripening.  I  am  in- 
clined to  think  that  God's  purposes  often  unfold  rather 
slowly,  and  not  hour  by  hour.  But  as  to  the  unfolding 
itself  there  can  be  no  doubt.  Great  store  of  goodness, 
of  love,  of  beneficent  purpose  is  laid  up  in  these  provi 


The   Treasury  Gate.  103 

dences  which  seem  so  severe,  as  a  gem  is  sometimes 
found  enclosed  in  a  rough,  hard  stone.  A  man  who  sets 
himself  to  watch  and  to  follow  the  development  of  one  of 
these  providences  is  like  one  who  watches  the  unrolling 
of  a  rich  web  from  a  foreign  loom.  First  appears  a 
rough  selvage  :  then  follows  a  dark,  sombre  fabric :  no 
beauty  there.:  then,  perhaps,  a  streak  of  gold  or  a  line  of 
embroidery  :  then  more  and  more  gold  and  color,  until  at 
last  the  web  unfolds  its  whole  pattern,  blazing  in  gold  and 
in  gorgeous  dyes.  So  you  do  not  see  the  gold  nor  the 
purple  in  the  first  unfolding  of  God's  providence.  It  is 
all  rough  and  sad-hued ;  but  the  purple  and  gold  are 
laid  up  none  the  less  in  the  heart  of  the  providence  : 
they  are  of  one  piece  with  the  sombre  web,  and  God  will 
bring  the  whole  pattern  to  light  by  and  by  to  the  praise 
of  the  great  goodness  which  He  has  laid  up  for  them  that 
fear  Him. 

God  has  strange  wrappers  for  His  promises.  He  lays 
up  His  goodness  sometimes  in  strange  places.  There  is 
one  promise  of  His  presence  and  companionship  which 
lies  in  the  very  depth  of  the  waters,  and  another  still 
which  can  only  be  found  in  the  heart  of  the  fire.  "  When 
thou  passest  through  the  waters  I  will  be  with  thee.  When 
thou  walkest  through  the  fire  thou  shalt  not  be  burned, 
neither  shall  the  flame  kindle  upon  thee."  * 

Out  of  this  truth  grows  a  practical  admonition  which 
cannot  but  be  serviceable  to  us  as  we  face  the  work  and 
trial  of  the  future  :  an  exhortation  to  faith  in  God,  to 
patient  waiting  and  hopefulness.     There  is  another  clause 

'  Isaiah  xliii.  2. 


104  Gates  into  the  Psahn  Country. 

to  the  text — "  Which  Thou  hast  wrought  before  the  sons 
of  men  for  them  that  trust  in  Thee."  God's  goodness 
is  not  always  kept  hidden.  If  there  is  reserve  there  is 
also  unfoldittg.  If  there  is  laying  up  of  goodness,  there 
IS  also  working  it  out  publicly  before  men's  faces.  But  if 
we  want  the  goodness  wrought  out,  we  must  have  faith  in 
the  goodness  which  is  laid  up.  If  we  want  the  perform- 
ance, we  must  trust  the  promise ;  or,  as  one  has  said — 
"As  God's  faithfulness  engageth  us  to  believe,  so  our  faith, 
as  it  were,  engageth  God's  faithfulness  to  perform  the 
promise."  '  We  are  often  speculating  on  what  is  to  come  ; 
whether  the  years  shall  bring  life  or  death,  prosperity  or 
sorrow.  You  ask  the  watchman,  "  What  of  the  night  ?  " 
You  who  trust  Him,  you  who  are  His  dear  children  through 
faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  may  take  this  answer  as  regards  the 
coming  years  :  you  are  going  forth  into  nothing  but  good- 
ness. '■'■All  things  work  together  for  good  to  them  that 
love  God."^  I  cannot  say  that  you  may  not  be  going 
forward  into  trouble,  humiliation,  toil,  disappointment.  It 
may  well  be ;  but  I  repeat  it,  if  you  are  walking  at  God's 
side,  you  are  going  forward  to  nothing  but  good  :  great 
goodness  is  laid  up  for  you  on  the  simple  condition  of 
your  trust  in  God.  Take  this  truth  as  a  fact  and  not  as  a 
poetic  fancy : — God  has  great  goodness  laid  up  for  me. 
If  the  worst  which  I  fear  shall  come  to  pass,  I  shall  find 
His  goodness  laid  up  in  the  heart  of  the  disaster.  If 
there  is  some  cherished  desire  yet  unfulfilled,  for  which 
you  have  been  looking  year  after  year,  perhaps  it  is  laid 
up  for  a  time  when  the  fulfilment  will  do  you  more  good 

'  Nathaiiael  Ilurdy,  quoted  by  Spurgeon.  °  Romans  viii.  28. 


The   Treasury  Gate.  105 

than  now.  Perhaps  God's  goodness  is  laid  up  in  not  ful- 
filUng  it :  at  any  rate,  follow  the  line  of  God's  providence 
whither  it  leads  you,  take  the  good  as  it  falls  in  along  the 
line,  and  be  thankful  as  you  know  that,  with  God  as  your 
guide,  you  cannot  be  travelling  any  road  which  does  not 
lead  to  something  better. 
5* 


THE   GATE   TO   THE  CONFES- 
SIONAL. 


PSALM   XXXII. 

(i)    Blessed  is  he  whose  transgression  is  taken  away,  whose 
sin  is  covered  : 

(2)  Blessed  is  the  man  to  whom  Jehovah  reckoneth  not 

iniquity, 
And  in  whose  spirit  there  is  no  guile. 

(3)  For  while  I  kept  silence,  my  bones  waxed  old 
Through  my  roaring  all  the  day  long. 

(4)  For  day  and  night  Thy  hand  was  heavy  upon  me  ; 
My  moisture  was  turned  into  the  drouth  of  summer. 

(5)  I  would  acknowledge  my  sin  unto  Thee, 
And  mine  iniquity  did  I  not  cover. 

I  said,  I  will  confess  my  transgressions  unto  Jehovah, 
And  Thou  tookest  away  the  iniquity  of  my  sin. 

(6)  For  this  cause  let  every  godly  man  pray  to'  Thee 
In  a  time  when  Thou  mayest  be  found  ; 

So  surely  when  the  great  waters  overflow. 
They  shall  not  reach  him. 

(7)  Thou  art  my  hiding-place  ; 

Thou  wilt  preserve  me  from  trouble  ; 

Thou  wilt  compass  me  about  with  songs  of  deliverance, 

(8)  I  will  instruct  and  teach  thee  in  the  way  thou  shouldest 

go; 
I  will  watch  over  thee  with  mine  eye. 

(9)  Be  ye  not  as  horse,  or  as  mule  without  understanding, 
Whose  trapping  is  with  bit  and  bridle  to  hold  them. 
Or  else  they  will  not  come  nigh  unto  thee. 

(10)  Many  sorrows  are  to  the  wicked, 

But  whoso  trusteth  in  Jehovah,  loving  kindness  com- 
passeth  him  about. 

(11)  Rejoice  in  Jehovah  and  exult,  O  ye  righteous  ; 
And  shout  for  joy,  all  ye  that  are  upright  in  heart. 


VII. 

THE   GATE   TO   THE   CONFESSIONAL. 

The  point  at  which  the  earlier  brilliancy  of  David's 
career  began  to  merge  in  the  shadow  which  overhung  his 
later  years,  was  his  fearful  sin  in  the  matter  of  Uriah  the 
Hittite.  It  was  indeed  an  awful  crime  or  cluster  of 
crimes ;  yet  the  shock  of  his  defilement  is  tempered  and 
relieved  for  us  by  the  spectacle  of  his  penitence.  If  we 
grieve  at  the  weakness  which  yielded  so  abjectly  to  temp- 
tation, we  cannot  but  admire  the  vigor  and  promptitude 
with  which  resolution  gathers  itself  up  amid  the  wreck  of 
character,  and  with  manly  sorrow,  frank  confession,  and 
honest  penitence,  begins  a  new  life  in  God's  strength. 
One  has  truly  said,  "  He  is  not  what  he  was  before  ;  but 
he  is  far  nobler  and  greater  than  many  a  just  man  who 
never  fell  and  never  repented.  He  is  far  more  closely 
bound  up  with  the  sympathies  of  mankind  than  if  he  had 
never  fallen." ' 

It  is  with  this  lighter  side  of  the  sad  history  that  our 
Psalm  deals.  Whatever  else  it  may  teach  us,  it  teaches  us 
this  broad  truth  that  the  forgiven  penitent,  under  God's 
economy,  is  not  a  wretched  man.     "  Blessed  is  he  whose 

'  Stanley,  Jewish  Church. 


no  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

transgression  is  forgiven."  If  the  world  forgives,  it  gen- 
erally vouchsafes  a  kind  of  stinging  forgiveness  which 
perpetuates  the  smart  of  the  crime.  It  is  at  no  pains  to 
cover  the  sin.  We  can  say  of  one  thus  forgiven,  "  He  is 
tolerated:  he  has  a  new  chance  given  him,"  but  scarce- 
ly— "  he  is  blessed."  This  Psalm,  on  the  contrary,  while 
it  is  one  of  the  saddest,  is  at  the  same  time  one  of  the 
most  joyful  of  the  inspired  lyrics.  It  is  no  less  the  record 
of  a  bitter,  penitential  sorrow,  than  the  expression  of  a 
heart  full  of  praise.  It  comes  to  us  to-day  to  tell  us  that 
the  worst  sinner,  forgiven  by  God,  is  a  happy  man. 

The  true  nobility  of  repentance  shows  itself  in  nothing 
more  impressively  than  in  the  willingness  it  begets  to  put 
such  sad  experience  at  the  disposal  of  the  world  for  warn- 
ing and  for  instruction.  It  would  be  but  a  natural  dictate  of 
the  heart  to  cover  the  sin  as  God  has  covered  it.  It  would 
be  the  natural  prompting  of  self-interest  to  say,  "  The 
world  knows  too  much  already.  No  ne?d  of  refreshing  its 
recollection  of  my  short-comings."  But,  if  I  may  use  the 
words  of  an  old  writer — "  This  is  a  remark  of  a  true  peni- 
tent, when  he  hath  been  a  stumbling-block  to  others,  to 
be  as  careful  to  raise  them  up  by  his  repentance,  as  he  was 
hurtful  to  them  by  his  sin ;  and  I  never  think  that  man 
truly  penitent  who  is  ashamed  to  teach  sinners  repentance 
by  his  own  particular  proof,  Happy  and  thrice  happy 
is  the  man  who  can  build  so  much  as  he  hath  cast 
down."  ' 

In  this  Psalm,  David  gives  to  the  world  his  experience 
as  a  sinner.     He  tells  us 

'  Archibald  Symson,  quoted  by  Spurgeoii. 


The  Gate  to  the  Confessional.  Ill 

ist. — Of  the  Blessedness  of  Forgiveness. 

2d. — Of  the  Result  of  His  Attempts  to  Cover  His 

Sin. 
3d. — Of  the  Remedy  which  He  Found. 
4th. — Of  the  Result  of  Its  Application. 
5th. — Draws  a  Practical  Lesson  for  Our  Instruc- 
tion. 
When  a  shipwrecked  sailor  has  been  rescued  from 
death,  and  is  sitting  warm  and  dry  by  the  fire,  his  first 
thought,  his  first  utterance  is  one  of  congratulation. 
**  How  fortunate  I  am  to  have  escaped.  How  thankful  I 
am  to  those  who  saved  my  Ufe."  After  this  feehng  has 
found  vent,  he  will  go  on  to  tell  the  story  of  his  shipwreck 
and  of  his  rescue.  Hence  nothing  could  be  more  natural 
than  the  ordering  of  this  Psalm.  David  is  a  rescued  vaz-w  ; 
and  thanksgiving,  and  congratulation  on  his  present  secu- 
rity come  to  his  lips,  before  he  tells  the  story  of  his  moral 
shipwreck.  He  brings  the  blessedness  of  the  pardoned 
soul  before  us  under  three  phases.  First,  his  sin  is  taken 
away.  Perhaps  David  had  in  his  mind  the  picture  of  that 
strange  rite,  so  often  repeated  in  the  wilderness, — the  high 
priest  standing  with  his  hands  upon  the  head  of  the  scape- 
goat, and  confessing  over  it  the  sins  of  the  people,  and 
the  animal  led  away,  with  its  mystical  burden  of  trangres- 
sions,  into  the  wilderness.  But  whatever  the  image,  that 
is  the  fact  concerning  a  pardoned  soul ;  its  sins  are  taken 
away.  "  In  those  days,  and  in  that  time,  saith  the  Lord, 
the  iniquity  of  Israel  shall  be  sought  for,  and  there  shall  be 
none ;  and  the  sins  of  Judah,  and  they  shall  not  be  found."  ' 

'  Jeremiah  1.  20. 


112  Gates  ijito  the  Psalm  Country. 

Like  the  entry  in  a  creditor's  book,  they  are  blotted  out. 
God  does  not,  indeed,  when  He  takes  away  sin,  agree  tc 
take  away  all  the  co7iseque7ices  of  sin.  There  were  certain 
results  of  David's  sin  which  even  God's  forgiveness  could 
not  remove.  Forgiveness  could  not  set  Uriah  again  in 
his  place  in  the  army  or  in  his  household  ;  it  could  not 
wipe  away  the  dishonor  from  his  door.  There  were  cer- 
tain complications  in  the  royal  family  and  in  the  state — ■ 
natural  outgrowths  of  David's  polygamy,  which  took  their 
own  course,  spile  of  his  repentance  and  his  pardon.  Amid 
their  sinful  indulgences,  meii  should  keep  it  before  them 
that  Nature  knows  nothing  of  forgiveness.  But  the  utter- 
ance of  the  Psalm  concerns  sin  in  its  relations  to  God  and 
to  future  judgment.  As  affecting  the  sinner's  relations  to 
these,  it  is  taken  away.  It  never  will  appear  against  him 
again  :  he  may  fall  again,  and  lower  than  before ;  but  those 
sins,  freely  forgiven,  will  never  be  laid  to  his  account. 

2d. — He  is  blessed  in  that  his  sins  are  covered  or  hid- 
deji,  and  that  from  God ;  not  from  men.  There  is  no  real 
blessedness  in  the  fact  that  men  do  not  know  our  sins ; 
and  it  is  worthy  of  notice  that  these  words  strike  at  the 
very  sentiment  underlying  the  social  and  moral  rottenness 
which  is  coming  to  light  so  wonderfully  in  these  days  : 
the  sentiment  that  makes  men  content  to  live  a  life 
which  is  an  awful,  hollow  cheat  in  God's  sight, — disturbed 
only  by  the  prospect  of  detection  by  their  fellow-men,  as 
if  the  chief  end  of  man  were  not  to  be  found  out :  as  if 
man's  relations  to  God  were  not  first  :  as  if  the  first  thing 
to  be  provided  for  were  not  the  scrutiny  of  the  divine  eye  : 
as  if  exposure  to  the  world  were  not  as  a  grain  of  sand 
when  weighed  against  exposure  to  the  eye  of  Him  with 


The  Gate  to  the  Confessional.  1 1 3 

whom  we  jniist  deal  sooner  or  late,  and  to  whom  "  all 
things  are  naked  and  opened."  '  If  you  would  estimate 
the  blessedness  of  such  covering  of  sin,  read  the  familiar 
story  of  Ananias  and  Saj^phira  :  example  for  all  time  of 
those  who  would  stand  well  with  men  at  the  expense  of  a 
lie,  without  a  thought  of  the  God  whose  service  they  were 
caricaturing.  That  thought  comes  uppermost  in  the 
words  of  the  apostle  who  pronounces  their  sin  and  their 
doom  :  "  Why  hath  Satan  filled  thine  heart  to  He  to  the 
Holy  Ghost  ?  Thou  hast  not  lied  unto  men,  but  unto 
God."  "  How  different  the  feeling  of  David.  His  sm  is 
public  ;  the  story  of  his  moral  fall  has  spread  from  the 
court  to  the  army  and  through  the  kingdom  :  yet  there  is 
not  a  hint  of  sorrow  for  that.  Nay,  as  we  have  seen,  he 
holds  up  his  own  sin  as  a  beacon  to  warn  the  world. 
Man's  estimate  of  the  matter  does  not  seem  to  occur  to 
him  ;  but  only  the  joyful  fact  that  it  is  covered  from  God: 
that  God  himself  covers  it.  However  men  may  conmient  01 
rail,  it  matters  little  while  God  says  "  I  have  blotted  out  as 
a  thick  cloud  thy  transgressions,  and  as  a  cloud  thy  sins."  ' 
3d. — He  is  blessed  still  farther  in  that  he  is  treated  as 
ifinocent.  The  Lord  does  not  impute  nor  lay  the  iniquity 
to  his  charge.  Paul  gives  us,  in  the  fourth  chapter  of 
Romans,  the  Christian  development  of  this  thought,  con- 
firming it  by  these  very  words  of  David.  "  To  him  that 
worketh  not,  but  belie veth  on  Him  that  justifieth  the  un- 
godly, his  faith  is  counted  for  righteousness."  That  is, 
God  treats  him  who,  in  faith,  lays  his  sins  upon  Jesus 
Christ,  just  as  though  he  were  righteous. 

'  Hebrews  iv.  13.  '^  Acts  v.  3,  4.  ^  Isaiah  xliv.  22 


114  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

But  we  notice  that  there  follows  a  phrase  which,  if  I 
may  so  speak,  brackets  all  these  three.  From  whom  does 
the  Lord  take  away  sin  ?  For  whom  does  He  cover  it  ? 
To  whom  does  He  not  impute  it?  Who  is  this  blessed 
man  ?  He  is  the  one  "  in  whose  spirit  there  is  no  guile  :  " 
not  the  man  who  is  innocent,  but  he  who  does  not  seek 
to  conceal  or  to  extenuate  his  fault  by  excuses  and  sub- 
terfuges and  self-deceptions.  Let  us  be  sure  that  we  put 
the  emphasis  in  the  right  place  :  "  Blessed  is  the  man 
to  whom  the  Lord  imputeth  not  iniquity."  We  are  not 
blessed  because  we  do  not  impute  iniquity  to  ourselves; 
that  is  a  reckoning  with  which  we  cannot  be  trusted. 
There  is  a  natural  guile  in  the  human  heart  which  always 
makes  it  strike  the  balance  on  the  wrong  side  ;  that  is, 
to  its  own  credit.  Men  are  very  much  like  little  children 
who  hide  their  faces  in  their  hands,  fancying  that  no  one 
sees  them,  because  they  do  not  see  themselves.  The 
Spirit  gives  us  a  specimen  of  that  kind  of  self-delusion  in 
the  message  to  the  church  of  Laodicasa.  The  church' s 
reckoning  ran  thus  : — "  I  am  rich  and  increased  with 
goods,  and  have  need  of  nothing."  The  Spirit's  reckon- 
ing ran  thus  : — "  Thou  art  wretched  and  miserable,  and 
poor,  and  blind,  and  naked ;  "  and,  worst  of  all,  "  thou 
knowest  it  not."  '  O,  remember  that  sin  is  not  covered 
because  we  cover  it  from  ourselves  !  God  covers  sin 
only  when  man  frankly  uncovers  it.  "If  we  confess  our 
sins.  He  is  faithful  and  just  to  forgive  us  our  sins,  and  to 
cleanse  us  from  all  unrighteousness."  *  When  man  covers, 
God  is  sure  to  discover. 


'  Revelation  iii.  i5-iS.  '  i  John  i.  9. 


The  Gate  to  the  Confessional.  115 

However,  men   sometimes   need   experience  to  teach 
them  this  truth,  and  that  was  the  case  with  David,     He 
tried  the  poHcy  of  covering  his  "sin,  and  he  gives  us  th^ 
result  of  the    experiment  in  the  following  verses.      He 
withheld  confession  ;  he  kept  silence.     Perhaps  he  sought 
to  still  that  secret  voice  which  was  urging  him  to  lay  bare 
his  sin,  by  plunging  into  the  business  of  state,  or  into  the 
pleasures  of  his  court ;  but  all  in  vain.     "  When  I  kepi 
silence  my  bones  waxed  old."     The  very  seat  of  strength 
was  invaded.     His  body  suffered  from  the  terrors  of  re- 
morse.    What  an  image  is  this  that  follows — the  pressure 
of  a  strong  hand,  hampering  all  free  activity.     No  joy  in 
work  or  in  study  any  more.     The  healthy  competitions  of 
business,  the  free  play  of  social  converse,  the  sweet  inter- 
changes of  the  household,  all  repressed  and  devitalized 
by  this  painful  consciousness  of  guilt.     What  ails  the  man 
who  was  but  late  so  sparkling,  so  magnetic,  so  enthusias- 
tic ?     "  Day  and  night,  Thv  hand  was  heavy  upon  me  ; 
my  moisture  is  turned  into  the  drought  of  summer."     The 
old  freshness  of  heart  is  gone,  like  a  running  stream  dried 
up  in  the  sickening  heat  of  the  eastern  sun,  and   leaving 
nothing  but  the   tasteless  details  of  duty,  like  the  stones 
and  patches  of  sand  in  the  bed  of  the  brook.     Truly  has 
one   said,  "  God's  hand  is  very  helpful  when   it  uplifts, 
but   it   is   awful   when   it  presses  down."       Has    David 
read  your  heart  ?     Has  David,  told   your  story  ?     Have 
you  had  any  better  success  in  keeping  silence,  and  in  try- 
ing to  cover  your  sin,  than  he  had  ?     If  not,  you  must  be 
looking  for  relief  by  this  time.     If  not,  anything  must  be 
thrice  welcome  which  will  take  off  the  pressure  of  that 
heavy  hand,  and  set  the  springs  of  your  freshness  running 


Ii6  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

again  in  your  heart.  You  can  do  no  better  now  than  tc 
keep  by  David,  and  to  seek  relief  where  he  sought  it. 
WJiat,  then  J  was  his  remedy  ? 

It  was  confession.  "  I  acknowledged  my  sin  unto 
Thee,  and  mine  iniquity  have  I  not  hid.  I  said,  I  will 
confess  my  transgressions  unto  the  Lord."  This,  David 
tells  us,  is  a  very  effective  medicine.  Let  us  analyze  its 
properties  a  little.  We  find  it,  all  through  Scripture,  pre- 
scribed as  the  necessary  preliminary  to  forgiveness. 
"Speak  unto  the  children  of  Israel,"  says  God  to  Moses, 
"  when  a  man  or  woman  shall  commit  any  sin  that  men 
commit  to  do  a  trespass  against  the  Lord,  and  that  person 
be  guilty,  then  they  shall  confess  their  sin  which  they  have 
done."  '  "  He  that  covereth  his  sins,"  says  Solomon, 
"  shall  not  prosper ;  but  whoso  confesseth  them,  and  for- 
saketh  them,  shall  have  mercy."  ^ 

"Well,"  you  say,  "  if  God  knows  all  about  my  sin,  why 
should  I  confess  it?"  God  knows  what  you  want  in 
prayer  before  you  ask  Him,  and  yet  you  will  not  get  it  if 
you  do  not  ask  Him.  He  has  conditioned  forgiveness 
upon  confession,  just  as  He  has  conditioned  finding  upon 
seeking. 

But  besides  this,  you  are  to  remember  that  the  mere 
mention  of  the  fact  of  your  sin  before  God  does  not  con- 
stitute confession.  It  is,  indeed,  nothing  for  you  to  re- 
peat to  Him  a  fact  which.  He  knows  perfectly  well ;  but 
true  confession  implies  your  viewing  that  fact  in  the  same 
light  in  which  God  views  it.  Your  little  boy  gets  angry 
and  strikes  his  brother.     You  call  him  to  you  and  say. 

'  Numbers  v.  6,  7.  '^  Proverbs  xxviii.  13. 


The  Gate  to  the  Confessional.  \\^ 

*  Did  you  strike  your  brother  ?  "  "  Yes,  I  struck  him." 
"My  son,  you  have  done  wrong.  You  have  shown  a 
wicked  spirit.  Your  brother  provoked  you,  but  you 
should  have  returned  good  for  evil.  Is  not  that  so  ? 
Don't  you  see  that  you  did  wrong  ?  "  And  the  boy  shuts 
his  teeth  hard,  and  says,  "  No,  it  was  right.  He  hurt  me, 
and  I  punished  him.  When  I  get  a  chance  I  will  strike 
him  again."  Now,  the  boy  has  confessed  the  act,  but 
you  see  very  clearly  that  you  cannot  forgive  him  so  long 
as  he  insists  that  the  act  was  right.  You  will  most  assur- 
edly punish  him  if  he  do  not  come  to  you  and  say, 
**  Father,  I  did  wrong.  My  temper  was  very  wicked.  I 
deserve  to  be  punished."  And  just  so  you  may  go  to 
God  and  rehearse  the  whole  catalogue  of  your  misdeeds 
in  detail ;  but  you  may  just  as  well  spare  your  breath  if 
you  are  not  ready  to  acknowledge  the  guilt  of  your  acts, 
as  well  as  the  acts  themselves.  God  will  have  the  decla- 
ration from  your  own  lips,  that  you  are  a  transgressor  at 
every  point  where  He  charges  you  with  transgression ; 
that  every  defence  is  broken  down ;  that  your  most  cher- 
ished and  most  stoutly  defended  sin  is  just  what  His 
Word  declares  it  to  be — ugly  and  without  excuse  ;  that 
the  law  has  a  just  charge  against  you,  and  that  God  is 
fully  justified  in  every  word  of  condemnation  which  he 
utters  against  you.  That  is  the  way  in  which  David 
viewed  it,  as  appears  from  his  words  in  riie  fifty-first 
Psalm,  which  grew  out  of  this  same  sin.  "  Against  Thee, 
Thee,  only,  have  I  sinned,  and  done  this  evil  in  Thy  sight, 
that  Thou  mightest  be  justified  when  Thou  speakest,  and 
be  clear  when  Thou  Judgest.'^ 

Again,  let  it  be  remembered  that  confession  implies  re- 


ii8  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

nunciatioji.  When  a  hardened  criminal  in  his  cell  glee 
fuily  recounts  to  his  visitor  or  lawyer  the  details  of  his 
wicked  life,  that  is  not  a  confession  which  commends 
him  to  mercy.  The  man  who  makes  formal  acknowledg- 
ment of  his  sins  to  God,  knowing  in  his  secret  heart  that 
he  is  going  forth  to  do  the  same  deeds  again,  is  only  mock- 
ing and  defying  God. 

And,  once  more  :  True  confession  is  not  something 
extorted  by  terror  and  by  fear  of  impending  justice.  Such 
an  acknowledgment  implies  only  fear  and  despair.  It  is 
not  the  utterance  of  a  man  who  arises  and  goes  to  his 
father,  but  of  one  whom  bailiffs  arrest  while  he  flees 
from  his  father.  True  confession  implies  faith  in  God's 
pardoning  grace,  and  confidence  in  his  power  to  make 
the  broken  bones  rejoice,  and  to  wash  the  tainted  heart 
whiter  than  snow.  It  is  a  voluntary  laying  bare  of  the 
wound  to  the  eye  of  a  trusted  surgeon. 

Confession,  therefore,  as  implying  godly  sorrow  and 
true  repentance,  is  David's  remedy  in  this  strait.  The 
Prodigals  of  the  Old  and  of  the  New  Testament  answer 
to  each  other  :  "  I  will  confess  my  transgressions  unto  the 
Lord."  "  I  will  arise  and  go  to  my  father,  and  will  say 
unto  him,  Father,  I  have  sinned  against  heaven  and  before 
thee."  * 

And  now,  how  does  the  remedy  work  in  Davids  case  ? 

He  first  sums  up  the  result  in  a  single  sentence  :  "  Thou 
forga^v^est  the  iniquity  of  my  sin."  He  has  a  whole  cata- 
logue of  joyful  consequences  of  his  confession  to  present  to 
us  ;  but  he  is  careful  to  make  it  perfectly  clear  at  the  outset 

'  Luke  XV.  1 8. 


TJie  Gate  to  the  Confessional.  119 

that  all  these  consequences  are  linked  with  forgiveness. 
The  man  is  not  blessed  who  czxi  forget  his  sins  ;  who  can 
blind  hiinself  to  them  ;  who  can  divert  his  mind  from 
them  ;  who  can  temporarily  escape  their  consequences. 
Blessed  is  he,  and  only  he,  whose  transgression  is  fo7'- 
given.     Thus  we  get  back  to  the  key-note  of  tlie  Psalm. 

And  now  what  a  sudden  change  reveals  itself.  The 
tone  of  the  last  few  verses  has  been  like  the  sigh  of  the 
wind  through  the  dry  valleys.  Now  we  begin  to  hear 
the  running  of  streams.  The  abject  penitent,  moaning 
day  and  night  under  God's  heavy  hand,  is  transformed 
into  a  joyful  singer  of  praises  ;  a  prophet,  with  a  fresh 
lesson  of  God's  goodness  kindling  on  his  lips.  As  in 
every  case  of  true  spiritual  restoration,  the  subject's 
thought  goes  beyond  himself.  This  experience  of  mine 
shall  be  the  experience  of  every  one  who  fears  God. 
"  For  this  shall  every  one  that  is  godly  pray  unto  thee  in 
a  time  when  thou  mayest  be  found."  For  this  j  because 
such  has  been  my  blessed  experience.  And  yet  there  is 
an  undercurrent  of  warning  mingling  with  the  note  of 
praise  :  "  in  a  time  when  Thou  mayest  be  found."  There 
are  then  times  of  finding  God  ;  and,  by  implication,  times 
when  He  may  not  be  found.  You  ask,  is  this  indeed  so  ? 
May  not  God  be  found  at  any  time  ?  I  reply,  God  is 
always  the  same.  His  promise  never  varies  :  "  If  thou 
shalt  seek  the  Lord  thy  God,  thou  shall  find  Him,  if  thou 
seek  Him  with  all  thy  heart  and  with  all  thy  soul." '  But 
you  have  not  unfrequently  known  cases  where,  though 
something  you  much  desired  to  find  was  in  its  right  place, 

■  Deuteronomy  iv.  29. 


I20  Gates  into  the  Psalm   Country. 

yet  through  some  forgetfuhiess  or  confusion  or  careless' 
ness  on  your  part  you  could  not  find  it.  So,  one  may  in< 
capacitate  himself  for  fulfilling  the  condition  upon  which 
God  promises  to  be  found.  He  may  resist  His  Spirit 
until  he  shall  have  no  disposition  to  seek  Him  ;  no  dis- 
position to  repent  and  to  confess.  "  God,"  says  Cole- 
ridge, "'has  promised  pardon  on  penitence ;  but  has 
He  promised  penitence  on  si?i  ?  Is  the  repentance, 
the  passing  into  a  new  and  contrary  principle  of  action, 
i-n  the  sinner-'s  ovyn  power  ?  at  his  own  liking  ?  Has 
he  but  to  open  his  eyes  to  the  sin,  and  the  tears  are 
close  at  hand  to  wash  it  away  ?  Verily  the  tenet  of 
transubstantiation  is  scarcely  at  greater  variance  with 
the  common-sense  and  experience  of  mankind,  than  this 
self-change  as  the  easy  means  of  self-salvation. " '  It 
is  not  safe  to  struggle  away  from  the  pressure  of  God's 
hand.  Not  safe  to  let  those  times  sUp  by  when  God 
seems  so  near,  when  conscience  is  so  sensitive,  and  per 
ception  of  Divine  truth  and  of  one's  own  condition  as  a 
sinner  so  clear.  It  is  better  to  uncover  the  sin  at  once. 
When  the  sin  is  uncovered,  God  is  discovered.  The  hid- 
ing of  the  sin  hides  God. 

But,  apart  from  this  warning,  the  tone  of  the  Psalmist  is 
joyful  to  the  very  end.  I  have  escaped  from  the  pressure 
of  the  hand  that  was  heavy  upon  me.  Whereas  it  bore 
me  down,  now  I  lean  upon  it,  and  it  leads  me  into  pas- 
tures of  peace,  and  folds  me  like  a  tired  child  to  my 
Father's  lieart.  I -no  longer  fear  the  impending  judgment 
of  God.     In  he  floods  of  great  waters,  in  the  time  when 

'  Aids  to  Reflection. 


The  Gate  to  the  Confessional.  121 

Divine  wrath  shall  swallow  up  the  rebellious  sons  of  men 
as  in  a  whirlpool,  the  floods  shall  not  come  nigh  me. 
While  the  ungodly  shall  be  calling  upon  rocks  and  moun- 
tains to  fall  on  them  and  hide  them  from  His  face,  I  will 
go  to  Him,  my  Rock  and  my  Fortress,  and  hide  myself 
in  Him.  "Thou  art  my  hiding-place."  Thou  froni 
whom  I  strove  of  late  to  hide,  shalt  now  hide  me  Thy- 
self in  the  secret  of  Thy  tabernacle.  Thy  word  was  of 
late  my  dread.  Sharper  than  any  two-edged  sword,  it 
divided  soul  and  spirit,  and  pierced  me  with  a  thousand 
pangs:  but  now  "I  hope  in  Thy  word."  I  feared  but 
just  now  that  Thou  wouldst  destroy  me.  Thy  lightnings 
were  terrible  :  the  sound  of  Thy  thundering  made  me  sick 
at  heart :  I  shrank  from  Thy  step  as  from  the  tread  of 
an  avenger  and  destroyer  :  Thou  wert  my  trouble  when  I 
remembered  Thee.  But  Thou — the  same  God,  "  Thou 
s\\dlt  preserve  me  from  trouble."  Thou  from  whose  voice 
I  fled  like  Adam  in  the  garden,  "  Thou  shalt  fence  me 
about  with  sofigs  :  "  whithersoever  I  turn  I  shall  see  Thy 
hand  and  hear  Thy  voice,  and  shall  see  and  hear  only  to 
break  forth  into  an  answering  song  of  praise  and  thanks- 
giving. See  what  God  can  do  for  a  sinner.  Look  at  this 
sinful,  defiled  soul,  but  now  wallowing  in  his  lust,  raging 
and  smiting  in  his  passion,  blighting  the  fairest  flowers  of 
domestic  peace  in  his  selfishness,  crushed  and  withered 
by  remorse,  groaning  under  God's  hand — and  say  if  any- 
thing but  Divine  grace.  Divine  compassion,  Divine  for- 
giveness can  change  such  an  one  into  the  joyful  singei 
of  praises  who  speaks  to  us  to-day  through  this  familial 
Psalm. 

And  the  legitimate  result  of  every  such  experience  is  to 
6 


122  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

make  its  subject  a  teacher.  Christ  bade  Peter  make  use 
of  his  own  terrible  sifting  to  strengthen  his  brethren.' 
David  anticipates  the  lesson  ;  and  these  words  of  his 
have  been  the  text-book  of  penitent  souls  from  his  time 
to  the  present.  "I  will  instruct  thee  and  teach  thee  in 
the  way  which  thou  shalt  go  ; "  this  way  of  repentance 
and  confession  in  which  I  have  walked.  Be  not  obsti- 
nate in  refusing  to  walk  therein.  Heed  my  experience, 
ye  who  feel  the  pressure  of  God's  hand,  whose  moisture  is 
turned  into  the  drought  of  summer.  "  Be  not  like  the 
horses  and  the  mules  without  understanding,  whose  orna- 
ments are  bridle  and  bit  for  restraint,  because  they  do  not 
come  near  unto  thee."  That  is  a  terrible  comparison. 
Think  of  it  for  a  moment.  The  bridle  which  restrains 
the  beast  is  its  ornament.  It  is  a  well-known  fact  that 
certain  animals  have  a  delight  in  gaudy  trappings,'  and 
yet  these  very  things  are  the  signs  of  their  degradation; 
proofs  that  they  cannot  be  appealed  to  on  the  grounds  of 
reason  and  of  conscience.  And  it  is  also  true  that  the 
rebellious  attitude  which  a  sinful  man  assumes  towards 
God,  is  often  his  pride.  He.  tells  his  companions  he  is 
too  wise  to  yield  to  such  foolish  notions  :  too  strong  to 
be  frightened  by  those  "painted  devils  " — death  and  judg- 
ment ;  too  far-seeing  to  have  his  reason  cramped  and  fet- 
tered by  such  nonsense  as  repentance  and  faith  :  too  free 
to  be  in  subjection  to  any  power  in  heaven  or  on  earth. 

'  Luke  xxii.  32. 
"^  Rtiodi.  "  How  well  the  collar  graces  that  cow's  neck  ! " 
Kuoni.   ''  She  knows,  as  well  as  you,  that  she's  the  leader. 
And,  should  I  strip  it  off,  slie'd  cease  to  eat." 

ScluUev's  "  Wilhehn  Tell,"  Act  i.  Scene  i 


The  Gate  to  the  Confessional.  123 

And  yet,  if  he  but  knew  it,  this  very  attitude  is  his  humili- 
ation. It  stamps  him  as  an  unreasoning  creature  which 
does  not  appreciate  its  relations  to  God  and  to  eternity. 
God  would  gladly  deal  with  him  on  noble  and  generous 
terms,  as  a  free  man  in  Christ  Jesus :  would  fain  guide 
liim  by  His  eye  :  says  to  him,  "  Come,  and  let  us  reason 
together:"  but  if  man  refuses,  he  must  be  dealt  with  on 
other  terms.  If  he  will  not  accept  the  guidance  of  the 
eye,  he  must  take  up  with  that  of  the  bit  and  bridle.  God 
appealed  to  Pharaoh  first  as  a  man,  with  fair  reasoning 
and  respectful  solicitation  ;  and  this  failing,  he  was  treated 
as  a  lower  creature,  and  animals  and  insects  became  the 
instruments  of  his  torment.  If  men  will  not  come  nigh 
unto  God  and  fall  in  with  His  economy,  they  must  be  re- 
strained from  interfering  with  it. 

The  two  conditions  are  before  us.  They  are  summed 
up  for  us  by  the  Psalmist  himself  as  the  result  of  his  own 
painful  experience  of  sin,  and  of  his  joyful  experience  of 
forgiveness  and  salvation.  Many  sorrows  shall  be  to  the 
wicked ;  but  he  that  trusteth  in  the  Lord,  mercy  shall 
compass  him  about."  The  two  pictures  are  before  us, 
we  can  judge  for  ourselves.  Shall  we  have  the  dryness 
and  the  mourning,  the  blackness  of  guilt,  the  pressure  of 
the  iieavy  hand,  the  terror  and  dread  of  God,  the  restraint 
of  bit  and  bridle, — or  the  confession  and  submission,  the 
songs  of  deliverance,  the  joy  of  forgiveness,  the  guidance 
of  the  eye,  the  hiding-place  in  God,  the  shout  of  the  up- 
right in  heart  ? 


THE  GATE  TO  THE  \A/AITING- 
PLACE. 


PSALM  XXXVII. 

(7)  Rest  in  the  Lord  and  wait  patiently  for  Him  :  fret  not 
thyself  because  of  Him  who  prospereth  in  his  tvay,  be- 
cause of  the  man  who  bringeth  wicked  devices  to  pass. 


Vlll. 

THE  GATE  TO  THE  WAITING-PLACE. 

Men  who  live  selfish  lives,  walking  according  to  the 
course  of  this  world,  are  very  apt  to  take  a  comfortable 
view  of  the  condition  of  society,  at  least  so  long  as  they 
themselves  are  happy  and  prosperous.  "  It  is  a  very 
good  kind  of  world  after  all,"  they  will  tell  you  :  "  there  is 
a  great  deal  in  it  that  is  enjoyable,  and  a  great  deal  of  its 
evil  is  exaggerated."  Such  sentiments  are  very  often  the 
expression  of  a  selfishness  which  cares  very  little  about  the 
condition  and  tendencies  of  society,  or  of  a  blindness  and 
ignorance  which  /:no'W  very  little  about  its  condition  and 
tendencies. 

When  a  man  has  once  come  into  right  relations  with 
God,  has  begun  to  live  for  others  rather  than  for  self,  has 
begun  to  seek  "  the  kingdom  of  God  and  His  righteous- 
ness," and  that  not  for  himself  only,  but  for  his  fellow- 
men,  when  his  desires  are  summed  up  in  the  prayer — ■ 
"Thy  kingdom  come,"  he  is  apt  to  grow  uneasy  as  he 
sees  how  slow  the  Divine  kingdom  is  in  coming,  and  how 
many  indications  there  are  of  the  presence  and  tremen- 
dous power  of  another  and  hostile  kingdom  in  society. 

This  Psalm  is  addressed  to  a  soul  which  is  confused  and 
alarmed  by  this  aspect  of  the  world.  It  clearly  recognizes 
the   facts  which  make  it  uneasy  and   tempt   it   to  fretful- 


128  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

ness.  Hints  of  them  are  scattered  from  one  end  of  it  to 
the  other.  The  very  first  verse  recognizes  the  presence 
and  work  of  evil-doers.  They  plot  against  the  just ;  they 
watch  the  righteous  :  they  lie  in  wait  to  slay  him.  Not 
only  so,  they  succeed.  They  bring  wicked  devices  to  pass. 
They  are  in  great  power,  and  spread  themselves  like  green 
bay  trees.  Good  men  are  slandered,  pure  reputations  are 
blackene-d,  the  helpless  and  the  innocent  fall  under  the 
harrow  of  the  wicked  and  the  designing.  From  such  facts 
the  thought  runs  naturally  to  the  whole  great  mystery  of 
God's  administration  in  the  world.  God's  administration  ! 
So  dire  is  the  confusion  at  times,  so  sharp  the  contradic- 
tion, so  baffling  the  mystery  of  providence,  so  impercep- 
tifele  the  progress  of  truth  and  of  virtue,  that  the  hold 
of  the  strongest  faith  trembles,  and  the  spectral  doubt 
thrusts  its  leering  lineaments  into  the  face  of  God's  child — 
" 2^(7  all  things  indeed  work  together  for  good?"  It  is 
not  only  that  wickedness  is  rampant,  but  that  goodness  is 
tainted ;  that  good  men  are  weak,  and  bigoted,  and  most 
positive  and  aggressive  where  they  should  be  most  humble 
and  docile  ;  that  the  very  men  and  women  who  seem  most 
necessary  are  stricken  down  ;  that 

"The  good  die  first, 
While  those  whose  hearts  are  dry  as  summer  dust 
Burn  to  the  socket ;  " 

that  in  religion,  no  less  than  in  worldly  things,  men  are 
carried  away  by  the  shallow,  the  plausible,  and  the  tran- 
sient, rather  than  anchored  to  the  deep,  abiding,  eternal 
truth. 

While  the  Psalm  opens  to  us  this  picture — and  it  is  as 


The  Gate  to  the   Waiting- Place.  129 

old  as  ht«man  society,  and  has  tortured  the  minds  of  good 
and  true  men  from  the  beginning  of  time, — it  also  puts  us 
in  the  right  attitude  towards  this  mystery  and  confusion. 
Over  against  it  all  it  sets  the  great  truth — "  God  reigns," 
and  the  consequent  precept — "  Trust  in  Him."  To  the 
man  who  is  thus  troubled,  and  anxious,  and  tempted  to 
fret,  it  says — "  Fret  not  thyself.  Society,  lawless,  aimless 
as  it  appears,  is  held  in  God's  hand.  Leave  it  there : 
labor  to  improve  your  corner  of  it :  do  good  in  your  own 
day  and  generation :  instead  of  despairing,  triist  in  the 
Lord  :  instead  of  fretting,  delight  yourself  in  God  :  instead 
of  being  restless,  rest  in  the  Lord  :  hold  thou  still  in  Jeho- 
vah :  He  shall  bring  it  to  pass." 

"  Yes,"  is  the  reply,  "but  He  issolongm  bringing  it  to 
pass  :  He  makes  me  wait  so  long."  So  He  does,  and 
probably  will ;  and  it  is  this  side  of  the  lesson  of  faith  in 
God  which  I  want  to  bring  out  of  this  Psalm — the  lesson 
of  waiting. 

For  that  is  the  side  of  faith  which  develops  most  slowly. 
Working  is  not  always  a  sign  of  faith.  There  are  certain 
natures  to  which  work  is  an  instinct  and  a  necessity ;  and 
such  usually  turn  to  work  in  times  of  sorrow  or  trouble,  to 
"  worh  it  off,^'  as  they  say.  But  if  a  man  merely  diverts 
his  mind  from  trouble,  or  forgets  trouble  in  work,  his 
relief  is  work,  not  God."  Diversion  and  oblivion  are  not 
faith.  Successful  work  involves  no  faith  ;  it  is  only  joy. 
Faith's  harder  lesson  is  given  in  making  a  man  lie  still, 
and  not  work  at  all,  but  simply  bear  and  wait ;  it  is  given 
in  God's  both  smiting  him  and  tying  his  hands;  in  his 
being  forced  to  stand  still  and  see  wrong  consummated, 
and  villainy  successful,  and  the  wicked  in  great  power; 
6* 


130  Gates  info  the  Psalm  Cotmtry. 

it  is  given  in  his  being  compelled  to  work  witnout  success, 
as  men  style  it ;  to  labor  for  consummations  which  God 
indefinitely  postpones  ;  it  is  under  such  discipline  that  he 
wants  God,  no  one  less,  to  say  to  him,  "  Hold  thou  still 
in  Jehovah,  and  wait  patiently  for  Him." 

As  we  go  through  the  Psalm,  we  may  gather  out  of  it 
several  thoughts  which  illustrate  and  enforce  this  idea  of 
waiting. 

We  are  to  wait  unwaveringly.  In  the  thirty-fourth  verse 
we  read,  "  Wait  on  the  Lord  and  keep  His  way."  God 
brings  men  to  His  consummations  only  by  His  own  road. 
Whatever  apparejit  prosperity  they  may  reach  by  other 
roads,  no  matter  how  long,  is  not  of  God's  giving  ;  and 
therefore,  no  matter  how  tedious  God's  way  is,  or  how  tor- 
tuous, or  how  long  God  keeps  them  walking  in  it,  they  are 
to  keep  His  way  if  they  would  win  His  good.  And  this 
is  often  a  severe  trial  of  faith.  It  is  as  when  one  has  been 
travelling  for  long  hours  over  a  rough  road,  amid  storm 
and  mist,  ■vvith  night  drawing  on,  looking,  as  he  gains  the 
top  of  every  successive  hill,  for  the  spires  of  the  city  to 
which  he  is  going,  and  seeing  instead  only  a  new  stretch 
of  dreary  road,  and  a  new  hill  to  be  climbed — he  is  tempt- 
ed to  think  his  guide  has  lost  the  way,  and  to  take  matters 
into  his  own  hands.  To  the  man  who  waits  on  God  it  is 
indispensable  that  he  trust  his  guide.  Having  committed 
his  way  unto  the  Lord  as  he  is  bidden  in  the  fifth  verse,  he 
is  to  bear  always  in  mind  the  assurance  of  the  twenty-third 
verse  that  "  the  steps  of  a  good  man  are  ordered  of  the 
Lord."  The  Lord  will  not  order  one  step  too  many ;  He 
will  not  order  one  step  in  the  wrong  direction  ;  but  men  on 
God's  road  are  often  tempted,  as  they  are  on  country  roads, 


The  Gate  to  the   Waiting- Place.  131 

by  the  alluring  promise  of  short-cuts.  They  think  they 
see  a  short  way  to  success — to  wealth,  reputation,  social 
reform — and  into  it  they  rush,  and  go  on  smoothly  enough 
for  awhile  only  to  find  themselves  at  last  in  some  treach- 
erous bog,  where  reputation  and  wealth  are  swamped, 
and  reform  is  retarded,  and  the  true  good  is  farther  off 
than  ever. 

Again,  while  men  are  often  tempted  into  wavering  from 
God's  way,  they  are  also  often  scared  into  wavering. 
God's  way  is  a  safe  way  to  the  man  who  keeps  in  it.  "  He 
that  walketh  uprightly  walketh  surely  ;  "  '  but  God's  way 
nevertheless  leads  through  dangers.  Daniel  found  it  so 
when  it  led  him  to  the  mouth  of  the  lions'  den,  and  into  it. 
The  three  Hebrews  found  it  so,  when  it  led  into  Nebu- 
chadnezzar's furnace.  Paul  found  it  so  when  it  lay  through 
the  flying  stones  of  the  Lystran  mob  ;  and  no  Christian 
ever  tries  to  walk  God's  road  without  the  risk  of  being 
scared  from  duty.  It  may  not  be  by  the  threat  of  coarse 
and  brutal  persecution,  but  it  will  be  by  influences  just  as 
potent.  It  costs  money  sometimes  for  a  man  to  be  true 
to  God  ;  it  costs  the  displeasure  of  good  men  sometimes 
for  a  man  to  hold  to  God's  methods,  and  to  refuse  to  adopt 
shorter  and  more  plausible  ones  which  promise  a  quicker 
result.  Not  a  few  men  are  entrapped  into  indorsing  what 
their  deepest  convictions  condemn,  by  the  fear  of  seem- 
ing to  oppose  a  good  work.  There  is  more  real  courage 
and  close  cleaving  to  God's  way  than  is  often  supposed, 
among  heretics  so  called. 

"  Proverbs  x.  9. 


132  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

*'  There  lives  more  faith  in  honest  doubt, 
Believe  me,  than  in  half  the  creeds." 

To  human  reason,  safety  lies  in  stepping  out  of  God's  way 
when  these  dangers  appear  ;  to  faith  safety  lies  only  in  keep- 
ing in  His  way.  By  stepping  out  he  may  save  his  reputa- 
tion, his  money,  his  social  standing,  his  reputation  for  ortho- 
doxy ;  but  by  keeping  in  he  will  save  his  tnanhood,  his  life^ 
his  soul. 

To  wait  on  the  Lord  rightly  is  to  wait  cheerfully. 

'*  Fret  not  thyself,"  says  the  Psalmist  in  the  first  verse, 
"because  of  evil-doers;"  and  again  in  the  eighth  verse, 
"  cease  from  anger  and  forsake  wrath,  fret  not  thyself 
in  any  wise  to  do  evil."  You  have  seen  two  children 
bidden  by  their  parent  to  wait  in  a  certain  place  for  an 
hour,  until  he  should  return,  or  until  some  promised 
pleasure  should  be  prepared  :  and  you  have  seen  the  one 
cheerfully  occupy  himself  with  a  book  or  wi<*h  some  ob- 
ject at  hand,  while  the  other,  though  he  obeyed  the  com- 
mand to  remain,  fretted,  and  watched  the  clock,  and  won- 
dered when  father  would  return,  and  was  angry  because 
he  did  not  come  sooner,  and  began  to  fear  that  he  would 
not  come  at  all,  and  so  made  himself  generally  miserable 
until  the  hour  had  expired.  Thus,  obedience  is  not 
always  cheerful ;  and  just  in  proportion  to  its  lack  of 
this  element,  it  is  defective.  For  obedience  is  of  the  very 
nature  of  faith.  In  the  New  Testament,  to  obey  and  to 
believe  are  the  same  word ;  and  true  faith  is  always  cheer- 
ful and  restful,  busying  itself  with  the  present  good  while 
it  waits  for  the  promised  good,  trusting  in  the  Lord  and 
doing  good,  and  never  doubting  that  the  promised  good 
will  come  in  God's  own  time.     Whereas  some  of  God's 


The  Gate  to  the  Waiting- Place.  133 

children,  when  He  asks  them  to  wait  for  Him,  are  like  a 
boy  at  boarding-school  when  his  letter  from  home  fails  to 
come  at  the  usual  time.  The  first  day  he  is  uneasy  ;  the 
second  day  he  spends  all  his  spare  time  running  to  the 
post-office  ;  the  third  day  he  is  very  tearful  and  woe-be- 
gone,  and  is  beginning  to  think  his  parents  are  very  cruel 
and  negligent  to  forget  him  in  that  way.  The  fourth  day 
the  letter  comes,  full  of  love  and  of  pleasant  tidings,  and 
the  little  fellow  is  heartily  ashamed  at  having  distrusted  his 
parents'  affection.  You  must  have  noticed  the  difference 
in  Elijah's  behavior  at  two  different  crises  of  his  life. 
On  Carmel,  after  God  had  sent  down  fire  upon  the  sacri- 
fice, the  prophet  went  up  to  pray  for  rain.  God  had 
answered  by  fire,  and  he  believed  He  would  answer  by 
water.  Faith  heard  the  sound  of  "  the  tread  of  the  rain," 
and  yet  God  made  Elijah  wait.  He  prayed,  and  sent 
his  servant  to  look  toward  the  sea,  and  there  was  not  a 
cloud.  He  prayed  again  and  sent  the  servant,  and  still 
the  skies  were  as  brass  ;  and  again,  and  still  again,  to  the 
seventh  time,  when  the  cloud  was  seen  no  bigger  than  a 
hand  ;  and  meanwhile  not  a  word  of  impatience,  murmur- 
ing or  distrust.  But  a  little  later  came  Jezebel's  threat, 
and  Elijah  fled  into  the  wilderness,  and  sat  down  under  a 
juniper  tree  and  prayed  to  die.  God  was  too  slow  for  him 
then.  He  did  not  vindicate  His  power  at  once  ;  He  did 
not  lay  His  hand  on  that  vile  queen,  but  let  her  rage  and 
send  out  her  messengers  of  wrath,  and  slay  the  prophets  ; 
and  Israel,  too,  showed  no  sign  of  spiritual  life.  They 
had  forsaken  God's  covenant  and  thrown  down  His  altars. 
The  revival  was  too  long  in  coming,  and  he  cried  "  It  is 
enough;   now,  O  Lord,  take  away  my  life."     That  is  the 


134  Gates  into  the  Psalm   Country. 

spirit  which,  now  and  then,  gets  the  better  of  not  a  few 
of  God's  children  —  a  spirit  halt  despairing,  half  angry, 
which  says,  "  If  God  cannot  show  me  any  better  result 
of  my  life  and  work  than  this,  He  may  as  well  take  me 
out  of  the  world  and  have  done  with  it ; "  and  after  we 
have  fretted  and  chafed  awhile,  and  have  wasted  precious 
days  moping  in  secret  places,  like  Elijah  in  his  cave,  we 
are  very  likely  to  get  God's  message  to  Elijah — that  still, 
small  voice  of  authority,  not  bidding  us  die,  but  saying, 
"  What  dost  thou  here  ?  go,  return  on  thy  way,"  O  how 
often  we  need  reminding  that  "  he  that  believeth  shall  not 
make  haste."*  Some  one  tells  a  story  of  visiting  an  in- 
sane asylum,  where  there  was  a  patient,  but  slightly  de- 
ranged, who  occupied  himself  with  taking  apart  and  put- 
ting together  watches.  One  day,  without  a  moment's 
warning,  he  was  seized  with  a  fit  of  frenzy,  and,  snatching 
the  watches,  dashed  one  after  the  other  upon  the  floor. 
When  he  was  removed  to  another  room  and  had  become 
more  quiet,  the  physician  said,  "  How  came  you  to  de- 
stroy your  favorite  watches,  so  much  as  you  loved  them 
and  so  quiet  as  you  are  ?  "  The  poor  patient  replied,  in 
a  tone  of  piercing  agony — "  I  could  not  bear  the  tick, 
tick,  ticking,  and  so  I  dashed  them  on  the  pavement."  ' 
And  so  it  is  with  us  if  we  employ  our  waiting  time  in 
brooding  and  counting  the  minutes  of  God's  delay, 
looking  painfully  out  at  the  windows,  and  straniing  the 
ear  to  catch  the  sound  of  His  chariot-wheels,  keeping  our 
thought  fastened  on  the  delay,  and  not  on  God,  and  on  the 
work  which  God  sends  to  occupy  the  time  of  His  delay. 

'  Isaiah  xxviii.  i6.  ^  From  Spuigeon's  "  Treasury  of  David." 


The  Gate  to  the  Waiting- Place.  135 

The  "tick,  tick,"  will  drive  us  into  rebellious  and  angry 
thoughts  and  presumptuous  words.  But  if  we  can  only 
get  firm  hold  of  that  truth  in  the  thirty-first  Psalm — "■  My 
times  are  in  Thy  hand,"  if  we  can  leave  off  looking  at 
the  watch,  and  fix  our  eyes  on  the  Hand  that  holds  it,  if 
we  shall  stop  brooding  over  delay,  and  rest  in  the  thought 
that  we  and  the  delay  are  alike  in  God's  hand,  if  we  shall 
assure  ourselves  that,  however  long  this  or  that  develop- 
ment of  God's  providence  may  be  in  coming  round,  God 
himself  is  ours  here,  and  now,  and  forever — that  will  be 
rest  indeed.  "  My  times  are  in  Thy  hand."  Why,  we 
have  no  trouble  at  all  about  the  natural  succession  of 
times.  Spring,  it  is  true,  is  a  little  late  now  and  then,  or 
frost  comes  a  little  earlier  than  usual,  but  we  never  think 
that  the  course  of  nature  is  going  to  be  overthrown.  We 
have  no  doubt  that  the  crocuses  will  be  found  in  the 
woods,  and  the  time  of  the  singing  of  birds  come,  and  the 
green  forests  in  due  season  glow  with  autumn  purple  and 
gold :  and  why  should  we  be  any  more  troubled  about 
delays  in  providence  ?  It  is  all  one  economy.  The  dis- 
tinction between  nature  and  providence  is  artificial.  You 
and  I  move  in  an  order  as  fixed  as  the  order  of  the  sea- 
sons, and  controlled  by  the  same  hand ;  our  times  as 
well  as  nature's  times  are  in  His  hand ;  may  we  not  wait 
as  cheerfully  and  hopefully  for  the  late  coming  providence 
as  for  the  late  spring  ? 

And  we  have  no  more  business  to  fret'at  the  times  we 
live  in  than  we  have  at  the  delays  of  Providence.  A 
good  many  people  who  dare  not  grumble  at  Providence, 
make  it  up  by  grumbling  at  the  times.  Try  as  hard  as  we 
may  to  make  the  age  better,  we  shall  not  revolutionize  it 


136  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

at  once,  and  why  not  accept  the  fact,  do  the  best  and 
most  we  can  with  a  cheerful  spirit,  and  then,  with  equal  • 
cheerfulness,  wait  for  God  to  make  right  what  we  cannot 
help  ?  But  this  cheerful  waiting  seems  to  be  unknown  in 
the  experience  of  some  Christians.  They  wait,  they  pray, 
they  work,  but  they  fret  and  scold  enough  to  well  nigh 
spoil  both  work  and  prayer.  They  harp  on  the  degen- 
eracy of  the  times  ;  they  muse  on  the  days  of  old,  and  tell 
us  the  former  days  were  better  than  these  ;  they  predict 
ruin  and  disaster  to  Church  and  State  ;  they  are  in  a  con- 
tinuous state  of  fury  against  the  enemies  of  religion  and 
of  social  order.  Does  it  do  any  good  ?  The  Psalmist 
says  not:  "Fret  not  thyself  in  any  wise  to  do  evil;" 
that  is,  evil  will  be  the  result  of  thy  fretting.  And  it  will. 
An  angry  state  of  the  heart  is  a  bad  thing  for  the  spiritual 
life  ;  it  throws  it  off  its  balance  ;  it  impairs  its  power 
of  seeing  and  estimating  truly ;  it  indisposes  the  soul  to 
communion  with  God ;  it  tends  to  make  men  unjust  and 
uncharitable  and  despondent  and  listless.  A  man  cannot 
carry  round  with  him  such  a  raging  fire  in  his  bosom,  and 
at  the  same  time  trust  in  the  Lord  and  do  good,  and  de- 
light himself  in  the  Lord.  From  being  angry  at  men  and 
things,  the  transition  is  easy  to  suspecting  the  wisdom  of 
God.  No,  there  is  much  to  sadden  us  no  doubt ;  much 
which  is  adapted  to  excite  indignation,  much  which  is 
tediously  long  in  righting  itself.  We  are  not  the  only 
men  who  have  felt  the  pressure  and  sadness  of  the  long 
delay.  We  are  waiting  still  for  what  David  waited  for ; 
but  then  we  are  waiting  with  our  faces  toward  sunrise. 
The  night  is  farther  on  now  than  then ;  the  windows  in 
God's  prophecy  all  open  on  the  east,  and  over  against  all 


The  Gate  to  the  Waiting- Place.  137 

the  causes  of  despondency  and  wrath  we  have  this :  "  He 
shall  bring  it  to  pass,''  and  on  the  strength  of  that  promise, 
God  bids  us  look  out  on  the  night  Uke  one  who  opens  a 
window  which  commands  a  sleeping  city,  reeking  with  its 
wickedness  and  filth  and  disease,  and  who  for  the  moment 
lifts  his  eyes  above  its  dark,  pestilential  streets,  and  sees 
the  encircling  mountains  reddening  in  the  fast  commg 
dawn. 

And  therefore,  we  may  wait  confidetitly.  The  Psalm 
backs  its  exhortations  by  numerous  promises.  "  Thou 
shalt  dwell  in  the  land  and  verily  thou  shalt  be  fed."  "  He 
shall  give  thee  the  desires  of  thine  heart."  "  He  shall 
bring  forth  thy  righteousness  as  the  light,  and  thy  judg- 
ment as  the  noonday."  "  The  righteous  shall  inherit  the 
land  and  dwell  therein  forever."  Look  especially  at  the 
twenty-third  verse.  We  have  been  watching  the  course 
of  a  man  in  God's  way — a  traveller  who  is  long  in  coming 
to  the  end — on  whom  God's  provideYice  imposes  various 
and  trying  delays.  To  the  eye  of  reason  it  seems  as 
though  the  man  were  walking  aimlessly  ;  as  though  his 
life,  with  its  continual  interruption,  and  confusion,  and 
stumbling,  and  baffling,  were  an  utter,  irredeemable  failure. 
And  so  it  seems  not  only  to  reason,  but  to  weak  faith. 
There  have  come  times  to  most  of  us  when  we  have  lost 
out  of  our  lives  all  sense  of  plan  or  order,  and  have  just 
gone  on  from  day  to  day,  doing  and  taking  what  the  day 
brought  with  it.  We  have  thought,  I  say,  that  those  were 
disordered  periods.  They  were  not.  Did  you  ever  study 
the  waves  of  the  ocean  ?  If  so,  you  have  noticed  that  each 
wave  was  full  of  little,  irregular  swirlings  and  eddies,  mov- 
ing in  all  possible  directions.    And  if  you  could  fasten  youi 


138  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

eyes  upon  a  square  foot  of  that  water  and  shut  out  all  the 
rest,  you  might  say  that  it  was  a  mere  watery  chaos  ;  but 
when  your  eye  takes  in  the  whole  wave,  you  see  that  a 
common  movement  propels  its  whole  mass,  and  takes  up 
into  itself  all  these  minor  movements,  and  bears  them  on 
with  the  regularity  of  a  marching  host.  So  these  spaces 
of  apparent  confusion  in  our  lives  are  not  out  of  order. 
They  are  carried  on  in  the  larger  order  of  God's  plan. 
Perhaps  we  cannot,  usually  we  cannot  see  the  whole 
movement,  but  it  bears  steadily  and  continuously  onward, 
every  incident,  every  crossing  and  confusion  of  incidents 
swept  on  at  God's  own  rate  and  in  nice  adjustment  with 
God's  own  plan.  There  is  no  disorder  in  the  life  of  the 
man  who  walks  steadfastly  in  God's  way.  "The  steps  of 
a  good  man  are  ordered  by  the  Lord,  and  he  delighteth 
in  his  way.  Though  he  fall  he  shall  not  be  utterly  cast 
down,  for  the  Lord  upholdeth  him  with  His  hand."  Aye, 
he  delighteth  in  his  way ;  even  in  that  w.ay  which  is  so  full 
of  stumbles  and  falls  ;  that  way  where  we  spend  so  much 
time  in  repairing  damages.  If  you  are  disposed  to  doubt 
it,  just  put  yourself  back  to  the  days  when  that  stalwart, 
manly  son  of  yours  began  to  walk.  You  remember  well 
the  first  day  he  staggered  to  his  feet  and  timidly  put  one 
foot  before  the  other.  You  remember  how  you  delighted 
in  that  tottering,  uncertain  way,  with  its  frequent  stum- 
bles. You  remember  how  you  saw  in  those  timid  steps 
the  promise  of  the  strong,  manly  stride  of  the  vigorous 
youth  and  man  ;  and  you  remember,  too,  how  you  upheld 
the  tottering  child  with  your  hand  and  raised  him  tenderly 
up  when  he  fell,  not  to  save  him  from  walking,  but  to  set 
him  up  to  walk  again.     Does  your  Father  in  Heaven  any 


The  Gate  to  the  Waiting- Place.  139 

less  delight  in  your  way  because  it  is  a  feeble,  uncertain 
going  ?  Does  He  any  more  leave  you  to  yourself  when 
you  fall  ?  Does  He  any  less  see  and  rejoice  in  the  promise 
of  that  day  when  you  shall  walk  with  a  steady  step  among 
the  strong  sons  of  God,  on  the  King's  highway  of  holi- 
ness ? 

Mark  too  that  the  steps  are  ordered.  The  whole  way 
is  ordered  it  is  true,  but  ordered  through  the  steps. 
Human  philosophy  says  that  the  world  is  moved  in  the 
mass,  and  that  the  mass  carries  the  details  helplessly 
along  with  it.  Divine  philosophy  says  the  mass  is  moved 
by  the  details.  Just  as  gravitation  acts  upon  each  sepa- 
rate particle  of  the  stone  which  rolls  down  the  mountain- 
side, so  God's  general  providence  reaches  its  result 
through  the  special  providences.  1  The  philosopher  sneers 
at  the  marking  of  the  sparrow's  fall ;  but  it  is  in  the  order- 
ing of  just  such  details  that  God  fulfils  Himself  in  history. 
So  our  lives  are  what  their  details  are.  The  goal  is 
reached  by  God's  ordering  of  their  separate  steps.  The 
only  thing  we  are  to  be  careful  about  is  that  we  step  each 
time  in  Godls  track.  We  see  only  a  little  of  the  way  in 
front ;  we  have  got  to  make  our  way  by  single  steps,  if 
we  make  it  at  all ;  and  though  God  checks  our  steps,  and 
turns  our  steps  in  strange  directions,  makes  us  step  now 
and  then  off  what  seems  to  us  solid  ground,  upon  what 
seems  like  treacherous  soil,  makes  us  wait,  and  wait,  and 
wait  in  our  slow  stepping  for  the  appearance  of  the  prom- 
ised goal — all  is  well  if  we  only  hold  fast  the  truth  that 
each  step  is  in  the  line  of  a  Divine  order,  and  that  the 

'  Dr.  Mark  Hopkins,  "  Evidences  of  Christianity,"  Lect.  III. 


140  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

way  by  which  God  leads  us,  though  it  seem  like  thread 
ing  a  hopeless  labyrinth,  is  the  way  in  which  He  delights, 
because  it  leads  up  to  Him. 

Rest  in  the  Lord  then.  Hold  thou  still  in  Jehovah  and 
wait  patiently  for  Him.  Whether  He  bid  thee  stand  still, 
or  wait  in  working  for  the  long  delayed  end — wait  thou 
utiwaveringly,  keeping  His  way,  and  not  turning  aside  to 
thine  own ;  wait  thou  cheerfully,  not  fretting  thyself  in 
any  wise  to  do  evil;  wait  thou  confidently,  trusting  in 
Him  to  bring  His  perfect  will  to  pass,  and  to  cast  down 
every  vain  thing  which  exalteth  itself  against  God.  Are 
you  unable  to  make  plans  ?  Does  the  outlook  seem  dark 
and  confused  ?  Move  on  step  by  step  then,  for  your 
steps  are  ordered  by  Him.  Are  you  waiting  for  time  to 
vindicate  your  reputation,  and  to  disperse  the  mists  in 
which  malice  and  slander  have  shrouded  your  name  ? 
Trust  in  Him,  "  and  He  shall  bring  forth  thy  righteous- 
ness as  the  light,  and  thy  judgment  as  the  noonday." 


"  To  God  thy  way  commending, 

Trust  Him  v/hose  arm  of  might, 
The  heavenly  circles  bending, 

Guides  every  star  aright ; 
The  winds,  and  clouds,  and  lightning, 

By  His  sure  hand  are  led ; 
And  He  will,  dark  shades  brightening. 

Show  thee  what  path  to  tread. 

Trust,  with,  a  faith  untiring, 
In  thine  omniscient  King  ; 

And  thou  shalt  see,  admiring, 
What  He  to  light  will  bring. 


The  Gate  to  the  Waiting- Place.  141 

Of  all  thy  griefs  the  reason 

Shall  at  the  last  appear ; 
Why  now  denied  a  season, 

Will  shine  in  letters  clear. 


Then  raise  thine  eyes  to  heaven, 

Thou  who  canst  trust  His  frow7i  ; 
Thence  shall  thy  meed  be  given. 

The  chaplet  and  the  crown  : 
Thy  God  the  palm  victorious 

In  thy  right  hand  shall  plant, 
Whilst  thou,  in  accents  glorious, 

Melodious  hymns  shall  chant. — Paul  Gerhard. 


THE    GATE     TO     THE    PHYSI- 
CIAN'S. 


PSALM    XLII. 

(l)  As  a  hart  which  panteth  after  the  water  brooks, 
So  panteth  my  soul  after  thee,  O  God.         y 

(Z)  My  soul  is  athirst  for  God,  for  the  living  God  : 
When  shall  I  come  and  appear  before  God  ? 

(3)  My  tears  have  been  my  food  day  and  night, 

While  they  say  unto   me   continually,  Where   is   thy 
God? 

(4)  These  things  would  I  remember,  and  pour  out  my  soul 

in  me, — 
How  I  passed  with  the  (festal)  throng, 
How  I  led  them  in  procession  to  the  house  of  God, 
With  the  voice  of  loud  song,  and  thanksgiving — a  mul- 
titude keeping  holy  day. 

(5)  Why  art  thou  bowed  down,  O  my  soul, 
And  (why)  art  thou  disquieted  in  me  ? 

Hope  in  God  ;  for  I  shall  yet  give  Him  thanks, 
Who  is  the  health  of  my  countenance  and  my  God. 

(6)  My  God,  my  soul  is  bowed  down  in  me  ; 
Therefore    do    I   remember   Thee   from   the   land    of 

Jordan, 
And  from  the  Hermons,  from  the  mountain  of  Mizat. 

(7)  Deep  calleth  unto  deep  at  the  voice  of  Thy  cataracts  ; 
All   Thy  breakers   and  Thy  billows  have  passed  over 

me. 

(8)  Yet  in  the  daytime  will  Jehovah  command  His  loving- 

kindness  ; 
And  in  the  night  His  song  (will  be)  with  me, 
A  prayer  unto  the  God  of  my  life. 

(9)  (So)  will  I  say  unto  God  my  Rock,  "  Why  hast  Thou 

forgotten  me  ? 
Why  go  I  mourning  because  of  the  oppression  of  the 
enemy  ?  " 

(10)  As  though  they  would  break  my  bones  mine  enemies 

reproach  me, 
While  they  say  unto  me  all  day  long,  "  Where  is  thy 
God?" 

(11)  Why  art  thou  bowed  down,  O  my  soul, 
And  (why)  art  thou  disquieted  in  me  ? 
Hope  in  God  ;  for  1  shall  yet  praise  Him, 

(Who  is)  the  health  of  my  countenance,  and  my  God. 


IX. 

THE    GATE  TO   THE    PHYSICIAN'S. 

Perhaps  somebody  will  one  day  write  a  book  which 
shall  gather  up  the  services  which  unknown  men  have 
rendered  to  their  race.  Among  these  the  author  will 
surely  include  this  forty-second  Psalm.  It  has  been,  for 
centuries,  one  of  the  most  powerful  cordials  for  the  heart- 
sick and  despondent,  and  its  virtue  has  grown  rather  than 
diminished  with  the  lapse  of  years,  and  yet  we  do  not 
know  its  author,  nor  its  date,  nor  the  peculiar  circum- 
stances under  which  it  was  written.  All  we  know  is  that 
it  is  the  utterance  of  some  one  in  deep  trouble,  and  that 
it  tells  us  how  he  found  comfort,  and  how  we  may  find  it 
under  similar  circumstances. 

The  Psalm  presents  to  us  first,  a  picture  of  extreme 
despondency,  through  a  succession  of  graphic  figures. 
First,  we  have  the  beautiful  gazelle  of  the  desert  standing, 
with  panting  sides,  by  the  dry  watercourses  which  cleave 
the  mountain  range  on  the  east  of  the  Jordan.  Dr. 
Thompson  says  that  he  has  seen  large  flocks  of  these 
shy  creatures  gathered  by  the  valley  streams  in  the  great 
deserts  of  central  Syria,  so  subdued  by  thirst  that  they 
could  be  approached  quite  nearly  before  they  fled. 

The  writer  of  the .  Psalm  was,  apparently,  an  exile  in 
this  mountain  region,  in   sight  of  the  familiar  scenes  of 


146  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

worship  and  of  domestic  tranquillity,  and  his  soul  is  in 
great  trouble  because  he  is  cut  off  from  the  sanctuary  and 
from  the  privileges  of  pubHc  worship.  His  longing  for 
these  is  an  i?itense  thirst,  like  that  of  the  hart  for  the 
water  brooks.  It  is  easy  for  us  to  say  that  God's  pres- 
ence is  not  dependent  upon  the  sanctuary,  and  that  the 
Psalmist  need  not  have  wanted  the  light  of  God's  coun- 
tenance even  in  his  exile  ;  but  we  are  to  remember  that, 
under  the  old  economy,  men  depended  more  upon  the 
form  and  medium  of  worship  than  we  do ;  and  that,  there- 
fore, the  absence  of  these  helps  was  more  keenly  felt. 
And  even  we  are  not  so  independent  of  these  forms  that 
we  do  not  seriously  feel  their  absence.  Pure  spiritual 
worship  is  a  very  easy  thing  to  a  pure  spirit,  but  we  who 
are  in  the  flesh  do  not  very  often  get  above  the  need  of 
sensible  helps.  Our  humanity  craves  the  aid  of  a  few 
visible,  tangible  steps  under  us  in  our  efforts  to  mount 
heavenward.  Some  of  us  have  not  been  altogether  out 
of  sympathy  with  the  Psalmist's  thirst,  when  circumstances 
have  separated  us  from  the  familiar  scenes  of  worship. 
As  the  weeks  rolled  on,  we  have  found  our  heart  gath- 
ering up  its  deep  feeling  in  the  words  of  the  eighty-fourth 
Psalm  :  "  How  amiable  are  Thy  tabernacles,  O  Lord  of 
hosts !  My  soul  longeth,  yea  even  fainteth  for  the  courts 
of  the  Lord.  My  heart  and  my  flesh  crieth  out  for  the 
living  God."  Moreover,  we  must  not  forget  another  im- 
portant element  of  the  Psalmist's  distress.  In  his  day 
men  were  accustomed  to  look  for  sensible  tokens  of  the 
Divine  favor  or  displeasure.  If  a  man  was  prosperous, 
he  regarded  himself  as  blessed  of  God  ;  if  he  was  afflicted, 
his  first  feehng  was  that  he  had  incurred  God's  displeas- 


The  Gate  to  the  Physician's.  147 

ure.  Hence  the  writer  may,  very  naturally,  have  asso- 
dated  his  exile  with  God's  anger,  and  have  regarded  his 
banishment  from  the  sanctuary  as  a  banishment  from 
God's  favor  ;  at  any  rate  this  feeling  would  be  strong 
enough  to  awaken  a  tormenting  doubt  in  his  mind,  and 
the  consequent  thirst  for  God  of  which  he  here  speaks. 

However  the  psalmist  may  have  regarded  it,  his  ene- 
mies were  only  too  glad  to  put  this  construction  upon  it. 
Yes,  God  had  forsaken  him  ;  the  man  who  was  wont  to 
make  his  boast  in  the  Lord ;  the  man  on  whom  God  had 
showered  visible  tokens  of  his  favor — God  had  proved 
false  to  him  at  last.  God  had  left  him  to  wander  alone 
in  the  wilderness  ;  and  so  their  reproach  was  murder  in 
his  bones,  because  it  allied  itself  to  the  doubt  in  his  own 
soul.  They  gave  utterance,  with  their  taunts,  to  the 
very  thought  against  which  his  weak  faith  was,  perhaps, 
struggling : — Where  is  thy  God  ?  Why  does  He  not 
come  and  help  thee  ?  It  was  the  very  same  sarcasm 
which  the  priests  and  scribes  hurled  at  the  crucified  Lord : 
"  He  trusted  in  God  ;  let  Him  deliver  him  now,  if  He 
will  have  him  ;  for  he  said,  '  I  am  the  Son  of  God.'  "  ' 

Added  to  this  is  the  remembrance  of  past  joys,  all  the 
sweeter  now  that  they  are  gone.     Indeed, 

"  This  is  truth  the  poet  sings, 
That  a  sorrow's  crown  of  sorrow,  is  remembering  happier  things." 

Those  old  days  in  the  sanctuary — how  sweet  they  were  ! 
When  I  went  with  the  multitude  to  the  house  of  God, 
with  the  voice  of  joy  and  praise,  with  a  multitude  that 

'  Matthew  xxvii.  43. 


148  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

kept  holy-day.  Shall  those  days  ever  come  again  ?  My 
soul  thirsteth  for  God — for  the  living  God.  When  shall 
I  come  and  appear  before  God  ? 

Another  picture.  Stand  by  the  sea-coast  of  Palestine 
on  some  windy  day,  and  watch  the  clouds  which  hang 
like  a  pall  along  the  horizon.  Now,  suddenly,  you  shall 
see  on  the  skirts  of  the  clouds,  a  mass  of  black  vapor, 
shaped  like  a  long  funnel,  its  smaller  end  resting  on  the 
sea,  and  the  whole  mass  at  once  whirhng  on  its  own  axis, 
and  driven  on  by  the  wind  with  a  terrific  roar.  Look 
down  now  at  the  sea,  and  behold  how  the  commotion  of 
its  surface  answers  to  the  commotion  above.  Where  the 
water-spout  moves  with  its  roar,  the  deep  hfts  up  its  voice 
in  an  answering  roar.  "  Deep  calleth  unto  deep  at  the 
noise  of  Thy  water-spouts."  And  when  these  spouts 
break,  as  they  do  sometimes,  on  the  mountains,  then  woe 
to  the  harvests  and  to  the  flocks.  The  dry  beds  of  the 
streams  are  swollen  in  a  few  minutes  into  furious  rivers — 
cataracts,  whose  waves  and  billows  go  over  grain  and 
olives,  sheep  and  goats,  and  men,  and  sweep  them  away 
to  destruction.  The  tumult  and  distress  in  the  Psalmist's 
soul  could  only  be  described  by  such  a  picture  as  this — 
flood  calling  unto  flood";  wave  after  wave  sweeping  away 
his  harvest  of  hope  ;  doubts  and  fears  within  answering  to 
calamity  without,  as  the  deep  to  the  water-spout.  .In  the 
exaggeration  of  sorrow  and  terror,  he  puts  it  as  though  all 
God's  chastisements  had  been  massed  upon  him  : — "  Ah 
Thy  waves  and  Thy  billows  have  gone  over  me." 

Thus  much  for  the  disease.  The  picture  is  sad  enough 
to  move  our  compassion,  and  true  enough  to  our  own  ex- 
perience to  awaken  our  sympathy.     But  with  the  disease 


TJie  Gate  to  the  Physician's.  149 

we  have  the  remedy.  The  Psahii  contains  a  prescription 
for  a  downcast  soul,  consisting  of  three  ingredients,  which 
we  shall  now  consider  in  order. 

The  first  is  Inquiry.  IV/iy  art  thou  cast  down  ?  Re- 
ligious despondency  must  have  a  cause ;  and  if  we  can 
discover  it  in  any  case,  the  old  proverb  holds  good,  that 
a  knowledge  of  the  disease  is  half  the  cure.  Many  a  man 
is  in  great  spiritual  darkness,  without  knowing,  or  being 
able  to  discover  the  reason.  He  has  been  trying  to  live 
rightly,  so  far  as  he  knows.  He  has  not  neglected  prayer 
nor  the  house  of  God,  and  yet  God  seems  to  have  hidden 
His  face  ;  his  peace  is  gone  ;  his  soul  is  full  of  harrowing 
doubts  and  suggestions — deep  calling  unto  deep  in  one 
continuous  tone  of  menace  or  of  wailing.  In  such  cases 
the  question  which  most  vexes  a  sincere  soul  is,  "  Is  this 
state  of  mind  a  mark  of  God's  displeasure,  or  not?"  As 
we  shall  presently  see,  it  tnay  be,  but  again  it  may  ?iot  be. 
For  instance,  Christians  sometimes  forget  that  they  have 
bodies ;  and  that  the  condition  of  their  bodies  has  a  good 
deal  to  do  with  the  brightness  or  darkness  of  their  spirit- 
ual moods ;  and  now  and  then  a  man,  through  sheer 
ignorance,  persists  in  some  course  of  life,  some  habit  of 
eating  or  drinking,  which,  by  keeping  his  body  in  an  un- 
healthful  state,  correspondingly  lowers  the  tone  of  his  spir- 
itual life.  Often  the  devil  which  torments  him  is  one 
that  goeth  not  out  but  by  fasting.  It  is  a  good  deal 
gained  when  the  man  has  discovered  this ;  when  he  has 
found  that,  by  a  little  attention  to  his  lower  life,  he  can 
get  out  from  among  the  waves  and  billows  which  go  over 
him,  and  can  climb  up  to  the  high  grounds  of  spiritual 
peace  and  clear-seeing.     Or  the  cause  may  lie  deeper 


I50  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

in  some  mental  disease — possibly  an  inherited  one.  You 
know  the  case  of  the  poor  hypochondriac  poet,  Cowper, 
who  wrote  : 

"  Where  is  the  blessedness  I  knew, 
When  first  I  saw  the  Lord  ?  " 

And  again,  in  the  very  spirit  of  the  fourth  verse  of  this 
Psalm  : 

"  What  peaceful  hours  I  (?;zr^  enjoyed  ! 
How  sweet  their  memory  still ! 
But  they  have  left  an  aching  void, 
The  world  can  never  fill." 

Did  you  ever  hear  anything  sadder  than  this  ? — "  Adam's 
approach  to  the  tree  of  life,  after  he  had  sinned,  was  not 
more  effectually  prohibited  by  the  flaming  sword  that 
turned  every  way,  than  mine  to  its  great  Antitype  has  been, 
now  almost  these  thirteen  years.  For  what  reason  it  is 
that  I  am  thus  long  excluded,  if  I  am  ever  again  to  be 
admitted,  is  known  to  God  only.  If  the  ladder  of  Chris- 
tian experience  reaches,  as  I  suppose  it  does,  to  the  very 
presence  of  God,  it  has  nevertheless  its  foot  in  the  abyss. 
And  if  Paul  stood,  as  no  doubt  he  did,  when  he  was  caught 
up  into  the  third  heaven,  on  the  topmost  round  of  it,  I 
have  been  standing  and  still  stand  on  the  lowest,  in  this 
thirteenth  year  that  has  passed  since  I  descended."  You 
see  what  hypochondria  will  do. 

But  then,  on  the  other  hand,  the  distress  may  arise  from 
estrangement  between  man  and  God.  One  may  be  among 
the  billows  because  he  has  voluntarily  tempted  them. 
Peter,  when  he  went  out  and  wept  bitterly,  was  cast  down 
and  disquieted  as  he  deserved  to  be.     He  had  put  him 


The  Gate  to  the  Physician's.  151 

self  by  his  cowardice  and  treachery  among  the  black  bil- 
lows of  remorse.  And  no  Christian  can  expect  bright  out- 
looks, a  clear  sense  of  acceptance  with  God,  a  peaceful 
conscience,  who  is  living  in  the  habitual  neglect  of  known 
duty,  or  in  the  habitual  indulgence  in  known  evil.  Any- 
thing which,  under  such  circumstances,  seems  like  peace 
and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost  is  a  delusion.  Such  depressed 
spiritual  states  will  be  very  likely  to  follow  the  neglect  of 
prayer  iox  instance.  The  road  which  leads  to  the  closet  is 
the  road  to  ho]3e  and  to  praise.  The  road  which  leads 
past  the  closet  leads  down  to  the  billows.  Or,  depression 
may  come  from  the  neglect  of  the  public  means  of  grace. 
If  God's  minister  hung  out  a  lamp  Iox  your  feet  and  a  light 
iox  your  path  on  the  day  when,  for  your  own  pleasure,  you 
stayed  from  the  house  of  God,  whose  fault  is  it  if  you  are 
bruised  and  sore  from  your  fall  into  the  trap  which  the 
light  illumined,  but  which  you  were  not  there  to  see  ? 
Perhaps  there  was  a  time  of  refreshing  from  the  presence 
of  the  Lord  at  that  social  meeting  to  which  you  did  not 
choose  to  go ;  and  you  know  what  Thomas,  the  doubter,  lost 
because  he  was  not  with  the  disciples  when  Jesus  came. 

Or  the  question,  "  Why  art  thou  disquieted  ?  "  may 
open  suggestions  of  another  kind.  If  you  cannot,  on  in- 
quiry, discover  that  sin  is  at  the  bottom  of  your  disquie- 
tude, it  may  occur  to  you  that  God  has  sent  it.  It  is  not 
unlike  Him  to  disquiet  those  whom  He  loves  sometimes,  in 
the  way  of  His  discipline.  You  are  in  affliction,  it  may  be, 
and  in  the  despondency  which  affliction  brings  with  it. 
Why  art  thou  disquieted,  my  soul  ?  God  knew  of  this  af- 
fliction, did  He  not  ?  He  could  have  averted  it,  could  He 
not  ?    Yes,  and  yet  He  suffered  it  to  fall.     If  then  He  in. 


152  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

tended  it  for  thee,  O  Soul,  why  art  thou  disquieted  ?  Thou 
art  satisfied  that  the  source  of  thy  trouble  is  divine ;  is 
that  something  to  be  disquieted  about  ?  Or  dost  thou  fear 
it  will  be  more  than  thou  canst  bear  ?  O  reflect  that  the 
Father  is  the  husbandman.  He  is  pruning  thee  that  thou 
mightest  bring  forth  more  fruit.  Shall  the  knife  in  thy 
Father' s  hand  cut  off  more  than  it  is  best  thou  shouldst 
lose  for  thine  own  growth's  sake  ?  Why  art  thou  disquiet- 
ed, my  soul  ?  Dost  thou  think  thou  art  an  exception  in 
thy  trial  ?  Dost  thou  forget  Him  who  was  made  per- 
fect through  suffering,  and  who  was  in  all  points  tempted 
and  tried  like  as  thou  art  ?  Why  art  thou  disquieted  ? 
Is  it  because  thou  canst  not  see  the  end  thy  God  has  in 
view  in  thy  trial,  or  wilt  thou  forget  that  this  "light  afflic- 
tion which  is  but  for  a  moment,  worketh  out  for  thee  a  far 
more  exceeding  and  eternal  weight  of  glory  "  ?  ' 

Thus  this  "  WHY  "  is  one  element  of  the  Psalmist's  pre- 
scription for  spiritual  despondency.  Only,  a  man  who  is 
downcast  must  ask  that  question  of  his  soul  in  good  faith, 
meaning  to  get  an  answer  if  he  can,  and  not  sentime-n- 
tally  and  insincerely,  shutting  his  eyes  to  the  revelation  of 
what  he  more  than  suspects  is  at  the  root  of  his  trouble. 
The  only  answer  which  will  come  back  then  from  the 
questioned  soul  will  be,  "  Thou  knowest  full  well  why  I 
am  cast  down.  Why  dost  thou  mock  God  by  asking 
why?" 

But  our  prescription  has  a  second  ingredient,  which  is 
REMEMBRANCE  ;  and  in  the  Psalm  we  see  this  under  two 
aspects  ;  the  Psalmist's  remembrance  of  his  own  experi. 

'2  Corinthians  iv.  17. 


The  Gate  to  the  Physician's.  153 

ence,  and  his  remembrance  of  God's  gracious  dealing 
with  others.  In  the  fourth  verse,  his  own  experience  re- 
curs. "  I  am  an  unliappy  exile  now.  My  heart  is  heavy, 
and  all  God's  billows  have  gone  over  me.  But  there  was 
a  happier  time.  I  went  with  the  multitude  to  the  sanctu- 
ary. My  heart  was  joyful,  and  my  mouth  was  full  of  songs. 
At  least  let  me  not  forget  Thy  benefits  in  the  past.  I  will 
remember  them  and  Thee  with  a  thankful  heart."  Ah, 
how  often  we  need  the  Psalmist's  admonition  to  his  own 
soul  not  to  forget  all  God's  benefits.  Trouble,  like  a  thick 
mist,  has  the  power  of  exaggerating  and  distorting  facts; 
and  in  the  midst  of  it,  we  are  very  apt  to  forget  that  God 
has  ever  sent  anything  but  trouble.  We  so  readily  say, 
'■'■All  Thy  Avaves  and  Thy  billows  are  gone  over  me." 
That  is  a  mistake.  Mr.  Spurgeon's  words  are  as  true  as 
they  are  beautiful:  '^All  the  breaking  waves  of  Jehovah 
have  passed  over  none  but  the  Lord  Jesus.  There  are 
griefs  to  which  He  makes  His  children  strangers  for  His 
love's  sake."  But,  on  the  other  hand.  He  says  that  with 
Christ  He  will  freely  give  us  all  things ;  and  while  we  are  so 
ready  to  say — '■^All  the  waves  have  gone  over  me,"  we  do 
not  say  to  our  souls — ' '  Forget  not  all  His  benefits."  And  I 
know  no  better  cordial  for  a  downcast  soul  than  the  recol- 
lection of  God's  mercies.  They  will  crowd,  at  the  sum- 
mons of  memory,  thickly  down  to  the  very  edge  of  to- 
day's trouble,  like  the  cloud  which  followed  the  Israelites 
down  to  the  marge  of  the  Red  Sea  ;  and  like  that  cloud 
will  send  light  over  the  troubled  waters  through  which  lies 
the  line  of  march.  To-day's  trouble  will  be  lighter,  and 
to-day's  outlook  more  hopeful  through  the  remembrance 
of  the  blessed  past. 
7* 


154  Gates  into  the  Psalm   Country. 

But  this  remembrance  of  the  Psalmist  also  takes  in 
God's  dealings  with  His  people.  No  one  has  such  a 
range  of  history  at  his  command  as  the  believer  who  is 
in  trouble;  since  the  history  of  God's  children  is  largely 
made  up  of  trouble,  and  as  largely  of  God's  deliverances 
out  of  trouble.  And  the  form  which  this  truth  takes  here, 
while  it  is  poetical,  is  at  once  instructive  and  beautiful. 
The  scene  of  the  Psalm  is  among  the  mountains  on  the 
east  of  the  Jordan  valley.  PVom  these  mountains  the 
spectator  had  unfolded  to  him  a  magnificent  panorama  of 
the  Land  of  Promise.  Lebanon,  the  sea  of  Galilee, 
the  plain  of  Esdraelon,  Carmel,  the  Mediterranean,  the 
whole  range  of  the  mountains  of  Judah  and  of  Ephraim, 
Bethlehem,  and  Jerusalem,  could  be  seen  from  differ- 
ent standpoints.  As  to  the  traveller  from  the  East,  to 
Abraham  and  to  Jacob,  for  example,  coming  from  Mes- 
opotamia, the  first  view  of  the  promised  inheritance 
burst  upon  the  sight  in  descending  these  mountains,  so, 
in  later  days,  it  was  from  these  same  heights  that  many  an 
eye  took  its  last  look,  through  falling  tears,  at  the  familiar 
scenes  of  home  and  worship.  The  ridge  was  in  a  sense 
consecrated  by  the  tears  and  sighs  of  exiles.  David,  in 
his  flight  from  Absalom,  Abner,  driven  by  the  Philistines, 
the  captive  Jews  on  their  way  to  Babylon — each  and  all 
had  turned  ere  they  went  down  to  "the  great  red  plains 
of  the  East,"  or  plunged  for  hiding  amid  the  mountain 
defiles,  to  look  their  last  upon  the  land  of  their  love  and 
pride.  And  yet  just  here,  amid  so  many  distressing  asso- 
ciations, the  exile  or  the  captive  might  look  off  from  the  hill 
Mizar  or  from  any  other  summit  of  the  range,  and  recall 
enough   of  God's  goodness  to  His  people  to  fill  him  lyith 


The  Gate  to  the  Physician's  155 

wonder  and  love,  and  almost  to  make  him  forget  his  own 
trouble.  How  many  displays  of  His  power,  how  many 
visions  of  His  beauty  were  associated  with  that  very 
ridge.  There  was  Mahanaim,  "the  two  camps,"  where 
Jacob,  afraid  at  the  coming  of  Esau,  had  met  the  host  of 
God,  and  had  learned  that  there  was  another  camp  there 
beside  his  tents  and  flocks ;  that  "  the  angel  of  the  Lord 
encampeth  round  about  them  that  fear  Him  and  delivereth 
them."  '  There,  in  the  deep  bed  of  the  Jabbok,  he  had 
wrestled  with  the  Covenant  Angel,  and  had  won  the  crown 
of  a  Prince  of  God.  From  those  heights  Moses  had  be- 
held the  Land  of  Promise,  and  Balaam  had  proj^hesied 
the  future  glory  of  Israel.  There  was  Jordan,  which  had 
parted  for  the  passage  of  the  conquering  people,  and  had 
held  back  its  sweei)ing  waters  while  the  ark  of  God  stood 
still  in  the  river  bed.  There  was  Jericho,  with  the  mem- 
ories of  the  circling  priests  and  of  the  falling  ramparts  : — 
the  whole  wondrous  history  of  God's  deliverances  for  Is- 
rael was  spread  out  in  panorama  before  the  sorrowful 
eyes  of  the  exile ;  and  he  might  relieve  his  sorrow  and 
fortify  his  spirit  by  the  perusal  of  this  record.  So  it  is 
that  in  the  sorrowful  passages  of  Christian  life,  God  often 
makes  use  of  the  memories  of  His  goodness  to  strengthen 
and  to  encourage  us.  The  height  to  which  sorrow  leads 
is  rugged  and  storm-swept,  but  it  often  commands  a  won- 
derful retrospect.  Sometimes  a  man  is  so  engrossed  with 
the  pleasure  and  business  of  the  present,  that  memory 
has  no  chance  to  do  her  work,  and  he  is  in  danger  of  for- 
getting God's  benefits  altogether ;  and  so  God  leads  him 

'  Psalm  xxxiv.  7. 


1^6  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

away  alone,  whither  he  does  not  Hke  to  go,  but  where, 
cut  off  from  the  occupations  of  the  present,  he  has  oppor- 
tunity to  survey  the  rich  and  fruitful  past,  and  to  grow 
grateful  amid  his  sorrow.  Yea,  often  the  very  land  of 
exile  is  the  land  of  precious  memories.  More  than  one 
has  found  the  very  path  \yhere  God  has  caused  him  to 
walk  in  tears,  most  fruitful  in  memories  of  blessing. 
At  any  rate,  with  such  a  history  of  God's  salvation  at  our 
command,  we  cannot  tread  any  path,  however  rough, 
but  that  we  shall  find  footsteps  there  before  us — memo- 
rials of  God's  deliverance  on  that  very  spot.  Men  of  old 
have  had  their  faith,  their  courage,  their  patience,  tried 
sorely  in  the  very  places  where  oitr  faith  and  courage  and 
patience  are  tried ;  and  their  experience  of  God's  saving 
goodness  and  power  calls  on  us  to  remember  that  the 
God  of  salvation  is  the  same,  yesterday,  to-day,  and  for- 
ever. It  is  worth  noting  how  this  element  of  remem- 
brance was  emphasized  in  all  God's  discipline  of  His  an- 
cient people ;  how  often  their  history  was  rehearsed  in 
their  hearing ;  how,  on  every  occasion  of  note,  they  were 
bidden  to  rear  visible  memorials  like  Jacob's  stone  at 
Bethel,  or  the  cairn  on  the  Jordan  bank  to  commemorate 
the  parting  of  the  river,  or  the  stone  Eben-ezer  set  up  by 
Samuel  as  a  memorial  of  victory.  And  even  in  the  very 
forms  of  address  to  God,  this  element  comes  in.  "  God 
of  Abraham,  of  Isaac,  of  Jacob" — every  such  address, 
while  it  draws  the  thought  of  the  worshipper  to  his  Divijie 
Helper,  also  reminds  him  of  the  men  whom  God  has 
helped,  and  strengthens  his  faith  by  the  memory  of  God's 
goodness  and  compassion  in  the  past. 

A  few  words,  now,  concerning  the  third  ingredient  of 


The  Gate  to  the  Physician's.    ,  157 

the  prescription,  which  is  hope.  "  Hope  thou  in  God, 
for  I  shall  yet  praise  Him." 

And  notice,  in  the  first  place,  that  hope  is  to  be  in 
God.  There  is  nothing  like  trouble  to  open  a  man's 
eyes  to  the  need  of  a  personal  God.  All  the  talk  about 
God  being  an  essence  diffused  through  rocks,  and  trees, 
and  waves,  and  all  the  various  forms  of  nature,  is  worse 
than  chaff  to  the  soul  that  is  cast  down  and  disquieted  by 
calamity  or  by  sin.  It  is  a  very  pleasing  sentiment  as 
one  stands  safely  on  the  shore,  that  God  is  in  those  foam- 
ing, tossing  billows  ;  but  when  all  the  waves  and  billows 
are  going  over  a  man,  he  wants  a  God  who  is  apart  from 
the  billows,  and  who  rules  the  raging  of  the  sea.  In 
the  midst  of  calamity,  man's  heart  cries  out  for  a  Father  in 
heaven.  "  What  we  want,"  says  one  who  knew  as  much 
as  any  other  man  of  the  deep  desolation  of  sorrow,  is 
not  infinitude^  but  a  boundless  One  ;  not  to  feel  that  love 
is  the  law  of  the  universe,  but  to  feel  One  whose  name  is 
love  ;  for  else,  if,  in  this  world  of  order,  there  be  no  one 
in  whose  bosom  that  order  is  centred,  and  of  whose  being 
it  is  the  expression,  then  order,  affection,  contrivance, 
wisdom,  are  only  horrible  abstractions,  and  we  are  in  the 
dreary  universe  alone.  It  is  a  dark  moment  when  the 
sense  of  that  personality  is  lost ;  more  terrible  than  the 
doubt  of  immortality."  ' 

Then,  too,  the  downcast  soul  must  hope  in  God,  and 
not  in  change  of  circumstances.  There  is  a  great  deal  of 
hope  which  rests  only  upon  change  of  circumstances,  and 
which  does  not  touch  God  at  all.     A  man  is  downcast 

'  Frederick  \V.  Robertson. 


158  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Cotmtry. 

for  instance,  because  he  has  lost  his  property  ;  but  what 
hope  he  has,  he  gets  out  of  the  possibility  that  his  pros- 
perous days  may  return,  and  that  he  may  be  a  rich  man 
again.  True  hope,  the  Psalmist's  hope,  would  say, 
"  This  loss  is  God's  work  ;  I  am  God's  child  ;  this  is  God's 
discipline  ;  through  this  He  may  be  working  out  for  me 
something  far  better  than  worldly  prosperity.  The  best 
thing  I  have  left,  the  thing  to  which  I  anchor  my  present 
and  my  future  is — God  is  mine.  This  matter  is  all  in 
God's  hands,  and  whatever  He  may  do  with  me  or  with 
my  fortune,  whether  He  give  back  my  prosperity  or  not,  I 
shall  yet  praise  Him  who  is  the  health  of  my  countenance 
and  my  God." 

And,  once  more,  this  hope  is  a  different  thing  from 
faith,  while  the  operations  of  the  two  are  nevertheless 
closely  allied.  God's  people  now  and  then  get  into  just 
such  places  as  the  writer  of  this  Psalm  was  in,  when  the 
waves  and  biUows  are  going  over  them,  and  when  faith 
does  not  realize  the  presence  of  God,  and  cannot  feel  it 
for  the  time.  Then  they  cry,  like  Job,  "  Oh  that  I  knew 
where  I  might  find  Him."  When  a  physician  gives  to  a 
sick  man  a  remedy  which  for  the  time  increases  his  distress, 
he  does  not  realize  nor  feel  that  the  work  of  restoration  is 
going  on  ;  and  in  the  dark  places  of  Christian  experience 
through  which  God  causes  a  man  to  pass  in  the  course  of 
His  discipline,  the  man  does  not  always  realize  that  God 
is  doing  a  beneficent  work  upon  him,  or  hotv  He  is  doing 
it.  Then  hope  comes  in.  "  If  we  hope  for  what  we  see 
not,  then  do  we  with  patience  wait  for  it."  '     Under  such 

'  Romans  viii.  25, 


The  Gate  to  the  Physician's.  159 

circumstances  one  is  tempted  to  call  out  to  God  in  his 
sorrow,  "  Why  dost  Thou  deal  with  me  thus  ?  "  And  the 
answer  he  gets  is,  "  What  I  do  thou  knowest  not  now, 
but  thou  shalt  know  hereafter ;"  '  so  that  we  can  only 
hope  in  God.  Clouds  and  darkness  are  round  about  him  ; 
he  cannot  see  the  light  of  God's  countenance,  but  he 
knows  the  bright  face  is  behind  the  cloud,  and  waits  in 
confident  hope  that  "  the  Lord  will  command  His  loving 
kindness  in  the  daytime"  and  His  song  in  the  night. 

Here,  then,  is  God's  own  prescription  for  a  downcast 
and  disquieted  soul.  So  many  of  these  there  are  to-day, 
buffeting  the  stormy  tides  of  business,  torn  away  from 
much  in  which  their  hearts  delighted,  filled  with  dread  of 
the  uncertain  future — to  such  the  Psalm  addresses  itself, 
bidding  you  inquire.,  "  Why  art  thou  cast  down  ?  "  Per- 
haps you  are  wrongfully  disquieted ;  perhaps  because 
you  were  trusting  too  much  to  riches  or  to  position  ;  per- 
haps because  you  have  strayed  from  God,  who  ought  to 
be  your  chief  joy  ;  or,  possibly,  your  disquietude  is  His 
call  to  you  to  come  back  to  His  side.  At  all  events,  it  is 
worth  while  to  find  the  cause  if  you  can  ;  and  in  finding 
the  cause  you  may  find  the  remedy.  It  bids  you  not  to 
forget  gratitude  in  your  sorrow.  It  bids  you  remember  the 
wonderful  mercies  of  God,  and  to  strengthen  your  faith 
with  the  thought  that  He  who  has  wrought  so  graciously 
for  you  and  for  His  j^eople  in  the  past,  will  be  your  God 
forever  ;  your  guide  even  unto  death.'-'  It  bids  you  hope, 
never  losing  out  of  your  mind  the  disciplinary  purpose 
of  God  in  all  sorrow,  and  waiting  in  the  confident  expec- 

'  John  xiii.  7.  ^  Psalm  xlviii.  14. 


i6o  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

tation  that  "  these  light  afflictions,  which  are  but  for  a 
moment,"  shall  work  for  you  "  a  far  more  exceeding  and 
eternal  weight  of  glory."  ^  If  not  here,  why  then  by 
and  by.  If  the  clouds  do  not  disperse  until  the  dark 
river  be  past,  yet  you  may  walk  by  God's  voice  though 
you  see  not  His  face  ;  and  in  the  land  of  eternal  light  you 
^■aSi  forever  praise  Him,  who  through  all  the  changes  of 
this  mortal  life  is  still  your  God,  and  who  shall  be  yours 
forever. 

'  2  Corinthians  iv.  17. 


THE   GATE   TO   THE   CAVE. 


PSALM   LVII. 

(i)  Be  gracious  unto  me,  O  God,  be  gracious  unto  me, 
For  in  Thee  hath  my  soul  found  refuge  ; 
And  in  the  shadow  of  Thy  wings  will  I  find  refuge, 
Until  the  destruction  be  overpast. 

(2)  I  will  call  upon  God  Most  High, 

Upon  the  God  who  conferreth  benefits  upon  me. 

(3)  He  shall  send  from  heaven  and  save  me, 

Though  he   that   would  swallow  me  up   hath  re- 
proached— 
God  shall  send  His  loving  kindness  and  His  truth. 

(4)  As  for  my  life — in  the  midst  of  lions  must  I  lie, 
(Among)  those  who  are  ready  to  devour,  (even)  the  chil« 

dren  of  men. 
Whose  teeth  are  spears  and  arrows, 
And  their  tongue  a  sharp  sword. 

(5)  Be  Thou  exalted  above  the  heavens,  O  God, 
(And)  Thy  glory  above  all  the  earth. 

(6)  They  prepared  a  net  for  my  steps ; 
My  soul  was  bowed  down. 

They  digged  before  me  a  pit ; 

They  fell  into  the  midst  thereof  (themselves). 

(7)  My  heart  is  steadfast,  O  God,  my  heart  is  steadfast ; 
I  will  sing  and  play  (upon  the  harp). 

(8)  Awake  up,  my  glory  ;  awake  harp,  and  lute  ; 
I  will  wake  the  morning-dawn. 

(9)  I  will  praise  Thee  among  the  peoples,  O  Lord, 
I  will  play  unto  Thee  among  the  nations. 

(10)  For  great  unto  the  heavens  is  Thy  loving  kindness, 
And  unto  the  clouds  Thy  truth. 

(11)  Be  Thou  exalted  above  the  heavens,  O  God, 
(And)  Thy  glory  above  all  the  earth. 


X. 

THE  GATE  TO   THE   CAVE. 

(7)  **  My  heart  is  fixed,  O  God,  my  heart  is  fixed  :  I  will  sing 
and  give  praise." — Psalm  Ivii. 

This  psalm  is  very  strangely  compounded.  It  is  de- 
scribed in  the  title  as  the  utterance  of  David  when  he  fled 
from  Saul  and  hid  himself  in  the  cave.'  It  is  the  cry  of  a 
man  beset  with  trouble  and  danger ;  yet  all  through  it,  we 
are  startled  by  sudden  transitions  from  cries  for  help,  and 
stories  of  wrong  to  cheerful  expressions  of  hope  and  out- 
bursts of  praise.  Thus  it  begins  in  the  sad  minor  strain  : 
"  Be  merciful  unto  me,  O  God,  be  merciful  unto  me  :  for 
my  soul  trusteth  in  Thee  :  yea,  in  the  shadow  of  Thy  wings 
will  I  make  my  refuge  until  these  calamities  be  overpast. 
I  will  cry  unto  God  Most  High."  Now  there  is  a  hint  of 
better  things :  "Unto  God  who  performeth  all  things  for 
me."  Now  a  change  into  a  tone  of  bold,  cheerful  hope  : 
"  He  shall  send  from  heaven  and  save  me  from  the  re- 
proach of  him  that  would  swallow  me  up.  God  shall  send 
forth  His  mercy  and  His  truth."  Now  into  the  minor  key 
again  :  "  They  have  prepared  a  net  for  my  steps  ;  my  soul 
is  bowed  down.  They  have  digged  a  pit  before  me."  And 
still  another  change,  and  this  time  into  an  exultant  strain  : 

•  I  Samuel  xxiii. 


164  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

"  My  heart  is  fixed,  O  God,  my  heart  is  fixed  :  I  will  sing 
and  give  praise.  Awake  up,  my  glory  :  awake  psaltery  and 
harp  :  I  myself  will  awake  early." 

This  condition  of  hopefulness  and  of  cheerful  steadfast- 
ness in  the  midst  of  trouble  is  one  of  those  things  which 
always  puzzle  a  mere  man  of  the  world,  but  which  present 
no  mystery  to  a  soul  which  walks  with  God.  But  the  fact 
goes  much  farther  than  cheerfulness  in  trouble.  The  word 
''fixed''  literally  means  "-prepared^'  ''fit,''  "ready:'  "  O 
God,  my  heart  is  prepared."  Among  the  most  uncongenial 
circumstances,  in  times  and  places  most  unsuited  for  wor- 
ship or  for  praise,  for  composed  thought  and  joyful  commun- 
ion, the  Psalmist  yet  professes  himself  ready  for  worship  and 
praise  and  communion.  This  would  seem  to  indicate  an 
habitual  xez.dim.&'s^  of  heart  to  turn  to  God  under  all  circum- 
stances. We  might  say  that  danger  would  naturally  drive 
him  to  prayer,  which  would  be  true.  That  would  enable  us 
to  understand  the  "  Be  merciful  unto  me,"  and  "  I  will  cry 
unto  God  ; "  but  danger  and  sorrow  do  not  habitually 
drive  a  man  to  praise ;  and  when  we  hear  him  in  such  cir- 
cumstances, saying — "  I  will  sing  and  give  praise,"  the  only 
conclusion  we  can  come  to  is  that  that  man  lives  habitually 
in  an  atmosphere  of  faith  and  of  heavenly  communion,  so 
that  in  all  seasons  his  heart  is  prepared  to  wait  on  God. 
It  is  about  this  habitual  preparation  of  heart  that  I  wish 
to  speak. 

The  ideal  perfect  Christian  life  would  be  a  life  in  con- 
tact with  God  along  its  whole  line.  It  would  be  every- 
where and  always  in  communion  with  God.  God's  will 
and  God's  love  would  fill  and  move  in  every  inlet  and 
curve  of  the  life,  as  the  ocean  in  its  gulfs  and  creeks  and 


The  Gate  to  the  Cave.  165 

round  its  promontories  ;  and  upon  this  high  plane,  the  gen- 
eral tenor  of  the  life  would  be  more  even.  There  would 
be  no  struggles  for  the  vision  of  God's  face  when  His  face 
should  be  constantly  unveiled.  There  would  be  fewer,  or. 
perhaps,  no  seasons  of  special  communion  with  God,  when 
the  whole  life  should  be  one  long  communing  with  Him. 
The  seer  on  Patmos,  in  his  vision  of  the  heavenly  Jerusa- 
lem, saw  no  temple  therein.  There  was  no  need  of  the 
special  forms  and  occasions  of  worship  where  the  spirit 
lived  forever  in  the  immediate  presence  of  Christ. 

It  hardly  needs  to  be  said  that  we  do  not  live  in  this 
condition,  and  that  we  do  need  certain  special  influ- 
ences to  recall  our  minds  to  heavenly  things,  to  lift  them 
into  the  atmosphere  of  rest  and  of  devotion,  and  to  keep 
them  from  drifting  away  into  worldliness  and  sensuality. 
God  has  recognized  the  need  and  has  met  it.  He  has 
given  the  Sabbath  with  its  rest  from  labor,  He  has  given 
the  sanctuary  with  its  quickening  influences,  He  has  com- 
mended the  season  of  special  prayer,  He  has  made  prayer 
draw  some  of  its  inspiration  and  get  some  of  its  character 
from  special  facts,  as  for  example,  in  family  prayer  ;  He 
has  instituted  the  sacraments  to  be  formally,  statedly,  and 
decently  obsei-ved,  and  thus  has  attached  a  certain  spirit- 
ual powtr  to  occasions,  of  which  He  expects  us  to  avail 
ourselves  to  the  largest  extent  for  the  quickening  of  our 
religious  life  ;  so  that  we  are  not  justified  in  neglecting  or 
despising  these  things  because  the  perfect  ideal  oi  Christian 
living  omits  them.  It  may  be  true  that,  in  a  future  day, 
we  shall  ask  Him  nothing,  because  the  perfect  oneness  of 
the  divine  life  and  ours  shall  do  away  with  the  necessity 
of  asking  and  receiving ;  but  it  is  true  now  that  we  are  to 


i66  Gates  into  the  Psalm   Country. 

ask  and  receive.  There  may  be  no  temple  in  the  heaven- 
ly Jerusalem  ;  but  on  earth,  it  remains  true  that  the  Lord 
loveth  the  gates  of  Zion,  and  bids  His  people  not  forsake 
the  assembling  of  themselves  together.^  It  is  true  that  by 
and  by  the  disciples  shall  drink  the  new  wine  of  the  king, 
dom  with  Christ  in  heaven,  or,  in  other  words,  shall  ex- 
change symbolic  for  personal  communion  ;  but  none  the 
less  are  we  bidden  now  to  assemble  round  His  table,  and 
to  do  this  in  remembrance  of  Him. 

Moreover,  we  are  not  to  ignore  the  spiritual  power 
which  attaches  to  stated  religious  occasions.  We  may  say 
that,  in  a  perfect  state,  religious  experience  would  be  much 
more  level,  that  there  would  be  no  alternations  of  feeling, 
that  the  soul  would  habitually  live  in  an  atmosphere  of 
holy  joy  and  peace.  That  may  be ;  though  even  in  the 
perfect,  ideal  state,  I  am  not  sure  that  spiritual  experience 
will  be  a  dead  level,  or  that  there  may  not  be  exceptional 
heights  of  spiritual  vision  and  ecstasy,  rising  even  above 
the  high  table-land  of  heavenly  life.  Be  that  as  it  may, 
we  are  to  accept  the  fact  that  these  special  religious  occa- 
sions induce  quickened  feeling,  and  quickened  spiritual 
perception.  After  you  have  been  immersed  in  business 
and  distracted  all  day  with  worldly  cares,  it  would  be 
strange  indeed  if  the  influence  of  the  place  of  prayer 
should  not  lift  you  into  a  calmer  region,  and  bring  you  in- 
to closer  communion  with  Heaven.  Even  as  the  feeling 
of  the  disciples  was  more  deep  and  intense  on  that  even- 
ing when  they  gathered  round  the  table  in  the  upper 
chamber,  when  the  sense  of  the  approaching  crisis  was  on 

'  Hebrews  x.  25. 


The  Gate  to  the  Cave.  167 

their  hearts,  and  wlieii  every  word  and  act  of  Christ  took 
on  a  double  impressivencss — even,  1  say,  as  their  feeling 
was  more  intense  than  in  their  daily,  ordinary  intercourse 
with  their  Master  —  so  in  the  sacrament,  in  which  we 
more  definitely  recall  those  closing  scenes,  and  read  their 
meanhig  in  the  light  of  our  own  spiritual  experience,  and 
of  the  history  of  Christ's  atoning  work  through  all  the 
Christian  centuries  —  we  may  exi^ect  to  have  feeling 
heightened,  and  thought  quickened,  and  perception  clari- 
fied. Life  is  not  all  spiritual.  The  flesh  lusteth  against 
the  spirit,  and  the  continuous  fight  will  issue  in  alternations, 
variations  of  the  level  of  Christian  joy  and  peace,  depres- 
sions from  which  we  must  be  raised  by  special  influences, 
"  unmannerly  distractions,"  from  which  we  need  the  closet 
and  the  sanctuary  and  the  communion  to  recall  us. 

But,  this  being  admitted,  we  are  none  the  less  to  guard 
against  the  tendency  to  make  our  Christian  life  and  expe- 
rience, our  Christian  peace  and  restfulness  centre  in  these 
occasions.  We  see  this  tendency  breaking  out  in  its 
grosser  forms,  in  the  cases  of  those  who  dissociate  re- 
ligion and  morality  ;  in  the  devotee  who  leaves  the  confes- 
sional or  the  communion  to  begin  a  new  series  of  debauch- 
eries ;  in  one  who  formally  abstains  from  certain  amuse- 
ments, or  gayeties,  or  indulgences,  and  carefully  frequents 
church  during  Lent,  only  to  give  up  the  rest  of  the  year  to 
unbounded  worldliness  ;  in  one  whose  thought  detaches 
itself  from  business  or  from  pleasure  only  at  the  time  of 
communion,  and  who  devotes  himself  for  a  week  to  spe- 
cial preparation  for  that  event,  and  then  drops  back  again 
into  the  sweeping  tide  of  the  world,  and  goes  down  with 
the  current  until  another  communion  season. 


1 68  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

These,  I  say,  are  grosser  manifestations  of  this  tendency. 
They  do  not  indicate  a  fixed  or  prepared  heart,  but  a 
heart  which  must  be  specially  worked  up  to  special  prep- 
aration at  definite  intervals.  There  are  subtler  manifes- 
tations of  this  tendency.  Sometimes  I  have  been  led  to 
question  whether  this  very  service'  does  not  reveal  some 
of  them. 

Christ  ordained  the  sacrament,  but  He  ordained  prayer 
also.  The  preaching  of  the  word  is  as  truly  His  institu- 
tion as  the  sacrament  of  His  passion  and  death.  Fidelity 
to  the  observance  of  the  sacrament  is  enjoined  by  Him, 
but  so  is  fidelity  to  every  other  duty ;  and  neither  Christ 
nor  His  apostles  anywhere  emphasize  fidelity  to  one  ob- 
servance to  the  neglect  or  disparagement  of  the  others. 
If  it  be  the  duty  of  Christians  to  hear  the  word  when  it  has 
special  reference  to  the  celebration  of  the  communion,  I 
cannot  understand  why  it  is  less  their  duty  to  hear  it  when 
it  bears  upon  other  departments  of  Christian  duty.  If  a 
devotional  and  tender  spirit  in  the  Church  is  desirable  every 
two  or  three  months  on  the  eve  of  the  sacrament,  I  do 
not  understand  why  it  should  be  less  desirable  every  week, 
or  how  conscience  can  acquit  a  Christian  for  the  neglect 
of  the  means  instituted  for  fostering  it. 

Let  us  clearly  understand,  then,  that  all  special  occa- 
sions in  the  life  of  church  or  of  individual — church  servi- 
ces, stated  preaching,  social  meetings,  closet  communing, 
sacraments — are  aimed  directly  at  our  ordinary  life  :  are 
designed  to  help  us  live  that  better.  We  are  led  up  to 
these  Pisgahs  and  Hermons  of  spiritual  vision,  to  the  end 

*  Preparatory  lecture  before  communion. 


The  Gate  to  the  Cave.  169 

that  we  may  carry  the  power  of  these  visions  into  life's 
common  routine,  to  sanctify  and  to  elevate  that.  These 
thinii;s  are  not  an  end  unto  themselves.  Christ  Himself 
withdrew  to  the  mountains  for  high  and  solemn  converse 
with  God — a  communing  o\\  which  the  imagination  refuses 
to  intrude — in  order  that  He  might  be  braced  and  inspired 
for  tlie  daily  contact  with  commonplace  minds,  and  with 
the  wretchedness,  filth  and  squalor,  the  disease,  and  igno- 
rance, and  bigotry  to  which  so  much  of  His  life  was  em- 
ployed in  ministering.  The  disciples  were  not  permitted 
to  stay  on  the  Transfiguration  Mount,  but  that  glorious 
vision  woidd  have  failed  of  its  main  purpose  if  it  had  not 
strengthened  and  kindled  their  hearts  for  the  hard  mission 
for  which  they  were  chosen.  These  exceptional  experi- 
ences in  our  lives  are  intended  to  foster  in  us  that  con- 
stantly prepared,  fixed  heart  of  which  David  here  sings  : 
the  heart  that  shall  be  prepared  for  praise,  and  for  trust, 
and  for  worship,  not  only  while  sitting  in  heavenly  places, 
but  also  among  lions,  among  them  that  are  set  on  fire, 
when  the  net  has  been  prepared  for  the  steps  and  the  soul 
is  bowed  down,  amid  the  fret  and  worry  of  life,  and  on 
the  dead  level  of  daily  duty  and  care. 

It  is  a  great  thing  to  have  a  heart  thus  prepared,  but  it 
is  not  an  impossible  thing.  If  the  Bible  is  to  be  believed, 
there  have  been  men  who  walked  with  God.  Paul  says, 
"  Our  conversation  is  in  heaven,"  '  and  that  does  not  mean 
merely  talking  about  heaven  or  hoping  for  heaven,  but 
living  habitually  in  a  heavenly  atmosphere,  in  which  one 
is  sensitive  and  responsive   to   every  voice  from  heaven, 

'  Philippians  iii.  21. 


I/O  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

And  you  have  met  such  persons  :  men  who  went  vigor 
ously  about  their  business  hke  other  men ;  who  seemed 
to  be  as  much  absorbed  in  it  as  other  men,  yet  who  never 
seemed  to  find  it  hard  to  sUp  into  talk  about  heavenly 
things,  and  whose  response  to  any  suggestion  of  heaven 
or  of  divine  truth  was  so  quick  and  natural  and  unforced 
that  you  saw  at  once  that  the  heart  was  p'epared,  and  that 
God  and  Christ  were  the  uppermost  facts  in  their  lives. 
And  that  prepared  state  of  the  heart  settles  a  great  many 
questions.  There,  for  instance,  is  the  question  of  Sab- 
bath observance.  You  find  persons  who  challenge  its 
claim  to  be  a  day  of  religious  worship  and  instruction. 
"It  is  a  day  of  rest,"  they  say.  "Why  should  we  mew 
ourselves  up  in  church  ?  Why  should  our  thoughts  be 
forced  into  religious  channels  ?  Why  should  we  not 
spend  the  day  in  amusement  ?"  A  Sabbath  thus  observed 
under  protest  could  scarcely  be  profitable  ;  but  that  mat- 
ter apart,  the  question  is  settled  for  a  prepared  heart  by 
never  being  raised.  When  you  have  a  holiday,  you  gen- 
erally spend  it  in  doing  the  thing  most  congenial  to  you. 
You  hunt,  or  fish,  or  read,  as  you  please.  And  similarly 
if  God  is  a  man's  best  friend,  if  his  heart  is  charged  with 
love  to  God,  the  day  which  relieves  him  from  the  distract- 
ing cares  of  business,  will  find  him  not  only  ready  but 
eager  to  meet  the  Lord  in  the  sanctuary.  The  opportu- 
nity of  dweUing  on  the  congenial  truths  of  revelation 
will  be  eagerly  embraced.  It  will  not  be  a  question  of 
duty  at  all,  but  a  leaping  of  the  heart  for  very  joy  as  it 
moves  into  the  green  pastures  of  the  word.  Such  an  one 
will  rest,  but  he  will  rest  in  the  Lord.  A  friend  once  said 
to  me,   "  When  I  was  a  boy  in  my  father's  house,  and  we 


TJie  Gate  to  the  Cave,  171 

were  singing  at  family  worship  or  at  other  times,  the 
chords  of  the  piano,  though  no  one  struck  the  keys,  would 
often  vibrate  so  strongly  as  to  startle  us  all.  Only,  if  we 
happened  to  sing  a  little  off  the  key — a  little  too  high  or 
too  low — the  instrument  would  be  mute."  And  the  ordi- 
nances of  God's  house — worship,  praise,  preaching,  sacra- 
ments— arc  a  good  deal  like  that  piano.  If  the  heart  is 
prepared,  if  the  life  is  set  in  the  key  of  love  and  faith, 
these  things  will  resjjond  most  harmoniously  and  mightily. 
You  know  how  it  is  sometimes,  that  a  social  meeting  or  a 
communion  season  seems  to  fill  the  whole  soul  with  its 
gracious  influence  :  when  you  are  as  sensitive  and  respon- 
sive to  every  thought  and  word  as  the  aspen  to  the  wind. 
Perhaps  you  thought  that  the  service  in  itself  was  unusu- 
ally interesting  and  impressive  ;  but  often  the  impressive- 
ness  has  grown  out  of  the  fact  that  you  were  in  right  rela- 
tion to  the  service ;  that  your  heart  was  prepared,  your 
devotional  feeUng  set  in  the  right  key.  We  might  very 
easily  have  more  of  such  delightful  seasons  ;  the  secret 
lies  mainly  in  having  a  prepared  heart ;  in  maintaining 
the  glow  of  faith  and  prayer  in  our  daily  walk  ;  in  keeping 
our  heart  tender  and  susceptible  to  divine  influences.  If 
you  come  to  the  sermon  or  to  the  place  of  prayer  without 
such  preparation  of  heart,  depending  on  the  occasion  to 
lift  you  bodily  into  a  condition  of  sympathy  with  heavenly- 
things,  the  chances  are  you  will  be  disappointed.  Most 
of  the  spiritual  energy  of  the  occasion  will  be  expended 
in  bringing  you  up  to  the  jjoint  from  which  you  ought  to 
have  started.  Some  of  us  remember  the  old-fashioned 
foot-stoves  which  our  grandmothers  used  to  take  with 
them  to  church  in  the  olden  days.     The  reason  why  the 


1/2  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

stoves  kept  them  comfortable  in  church,  was  because  they 
put  the  fire  in  them  before  they  left  home,  and  fanned  the 
fire  in  their  walking  or  riding  to  the  sanctuarj' ;  and  that 
church  will  have  the  warmest  and  most  sympathetic 
atmosphere  in  its  Sabbath  services  and  social  meetings, 
where  there  is  most  godly  living  and  prayer  and  medita- 
tion on  the  word  in  the  daily  experience  of  its  members. 
The  fire  will  be  ready  kindled  in  those  prepared  hearts 
when  they  reach  the  sanctuary,  and  a  single  breath  of  the 
spirit  will  set  them  in  a  glow.  There  is  a  difference  in 
the  way  social  meetings  are  conducted  :  one  man  is  a 
better  leader  than  another.  There  is  a  difference  in  ser- 
mons. A  pastor  may  preach  a  good  sermon  one  Sabbath 
and  an  inferior  one  the  next ;  but,  after  all,  the  difference 
in  the  tone  of  religious  services  is  not  altogether  explained 
by  these  variations  ;  a  part  of  the  cause  lies  with  the  peo- 
ple. Scripture  tells  us  of  those  to  whom  the  word  was 
preached  faithfully  and  pungentlj',  yet  who  were  not 
profited  thereby  because  they  did  not  hear  it  with  faith.' 
Isaiah's  lips  were  touched  with  a  coal  from  God's  own 
altar,  and  yet,  in  sending  him  forth  to  his  work,  God  said, 
"  Go  and  tell  this  people,  '  hear  ye  indeed  but  understand 
not ;  and  see  ye  indeed  but  perceive  not.  Make  the 
heart  of  this  people  fat,  and  make  their  ears  heavy,  and 
shut  their  eyes ;  lest  they  see  with  their  eyes  and  hear 
with  their  ears,  and  understand  with  their  heart,  and  con- 
vert and  be  healed.'  "  ^ 

We  need,  then,  to   keep  in  mind  clearly  this  thought — 
that  rehgion  in  the  ordinary  life — habitual  communion  with 

*  Hebrews  iv.  2.  ^  Isaiah  vi.  9,  10. 


The  Gate  to  the  Cave.  173 

God,  daily  abiding  in  the  atmosphere  of  heaven — is  the 
great  end  to  which  Christ  and  His  apostles  point  us  ;  and 
that  all  special  or  exceptional  religious  agencies  point 
that  way,  and  have  their  chief  value  in  fostering  the  con- 
dition which  is  described  as  having  the  conversation  in 
heaven.  It  is  right  that  we  should  look  up  and  forward 
from  the  routine,  or  struggle,  or  distraction  of  our  lives 
to  these  mounts  of  vision,  with  expectation  and  with 
longing ;  but  it  is  also  right  and  indispensable  that  we 
should  \oo\ifrom  the  mountain-top  down  along  the  stretch 
of  dusty,  rocky  road  to  which  we  must  soon  descend,  and 
feel  that  the  prime  object  of  the  blessed  rest  and  clear 
revealing  of  the  mountain  is,  that  we  may  walk  the  more 
diligently  and*  tranquilly  and  patiently  on  the  road.  Too 
often  our  lives  are  like  buildings  of  two  stories ;  one  on 
the  ground,  damp  and  cluttered  with  bales  and  boxes  and 
household  stuff,  blackened  with  smoke  and  ringing  with 
the  clamor  of  business  and  of  domestic  life,  and  where  we 
pass  most  of  our  time.  The  other,  whither  we  climb  on 
Sundays,  perhaps  once  a  week  besides,  possibly  for  a  few 
minutes  each  day — a  place  where  more  of  God's  light 
comes  in,  where  there  is  more  quiet  and  less  outward 
taint  of  sordidness,  and  where  we  have  an  outlook  at  the 
sky  and  beyond  the  limits  of  our  daily  round  of  domestic, 
or  business,  or  other  care,  and  get  out  of  the  reek  of  the 
lower  story  for  the  time.  It  is  well  that  we  do  this  so 
often ;  well  that  we  have  a  higher  plane  for  our  lives  to 
walk  on  now  and  then  ;  but  it  might  be  better.  Granting 
we  must  have  the  two  stories,  there  is  no  reason  why  all 
the  light  and  freshness  should  be  confined  to  the  chambers 
whither  we  go  up  to  look  at  the  heavens  and  to  commune 


174  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

with  God.  Windows  ought  to  be  cut  somewhere  to  let 
the  light  and  warmth  from  above  into  that  ground  floor  ; 
and  the  breath  of  God  ought  to  have  some  way  of  getting 
in  there  and  lifting  the  dull  atmosphere  of  care  and  worry. 
There  will  be  a  difference  between  the  two  stories,  but 
it  ought  not  to  be  so  marked.  Christ,  with  all  His 
power  and  sweetness  and  refreshing,  is  willing  to  come 
down  into  our  common  life  ;  to  teach  us  how  to  make  our 
"  common  task  "  "  bring  us  daily  nearer  God  ;  "  and  the 
seasons  which  we  spend  in  the  upper  chambers  ought  to 
make  us  so  in  love  with  Christ's  presence  that  we  cannot 
do  without  it  when  we  descend,  but  must  have  Him,  as  He 
desires  to  be,  "  with  us  alway  even  unto  the  end  of  the 
world."  When  He  shall  thus  abide  with  us  and  we  with 
Him,  all  our  life,  whether  commonplace  or  sublime,  will 
get  its  character  from  that  abiding  :  business,  domestic 
life,  pleasure,  all  will  fall  into  the  key  of  His  spirit,  and  he 
who  thus  walks  with  Him,  will  know,  in  the  ready  response 
of  every  detail  of  his  life  to  Christ's  touch,  what  the 
Psahnist  meant  when  he  said — "  My  heart  is  prepared." 

"My  heart  is  fixed."  "Ah!"  one  will  say,  "My 
heart  !  There  is  just  the  trouble  :  that  traitorous,  rebel- 
lious heart ;  if  I  could  only  get  it  fixed  and  resting  in 
God,  then  indeed  it  would  be  prepared  for  all  things  ; 
but  to-day  it  is  at  peace  with  God,  the  next  day  laden 
with  the  consciousness  of  sin.  To-day  it  rejoices,  to-mor- 
row i-t  will  be  in  heaviness  through  manifold  temptations  ; 
to-day  it  is  hopeful  and  trustful,  to-morrow  it  will,  very 
likely,  be  racked  with  doubt ;  to-day  I  think  it  conse- 
crated fully,  to-morrow  I  may  have  reason  to  doubt 
whether  it  is  consecrated  at  all." 


The  Gate  to  the  Cave.  i75 

I  think  there  is  comfort  for  you.  Very  probably  you 
try  to  get  out  of  this  experience  by  renewing  your  con- 
secrations at  intervals,  by  making  new  and  solenm  vows 
and  resolutions,  by  endeavoring  by  the  act  of  your  will 
to  make  a  full  surrender  of  self,  hoping  that  some  time 
you  will  do  this  so  thoroughly  that  God  will  no  longer 
withhold  Himself,  and  you  will  be  free.  And  you  may  be 
sure  that  if  you  persevere  in  that  course,  you  will  not  get 
free.  You  will  keep  on  alternating  between  light  and 
darkness,  defeat  and  victory.  Your  heart  will  not  be 
fixed.  But  there  is  a  way  out.  If  you  will  stop  studying 
your  own  consecrations,  and  your  self  surrenders,  stop 
studying  self  so  much,  and  begin  to  study  Christ.,  you  will 
find  that  way  out.  That  is  to  say,  if,  instead  of  feeling 
that  you  have  got  to  fight  your  way  to  confidence  and 
peace  and  habitual  victory  over  temptation  by  a  series 
of  self-offerings,  you  will  just  receive  Christ,  and  let  Him 
come  in ,  and  do  the  whole  work,  you  will  find  it  done 
much  better.  He  will  crucify  self  in  you  much  more 
effectively  than  you  can.  It  is  they  that  receive  Him 
that  have  power  given  them  to  become  sons  of  God.' 
If  Christ  shall  possess  you  fully,  self  will  go  out  as  a 
matter  of  course.  I  am  reminded  just  here  of  the  words 
of  a  venerable  minister '  now  in  heaven  ;  a  giant  in  the 
pulpit,  and  a  little  child  in  the  wisdom  of  Christian  ex- 
perience, "  Deliverance,  habitual  joy  in  God,  and  vic- 
tory over  old  habits  and  temptations  came  when  I  had 
become  perfectly  assured  that  God  had  freely  given  Him- 
self to  me.     I  do  not  mean  until  God  had  revealed  Him- 

'  John  i.  12.  'Rev.  Dr.  James,  of  Albany. 


176  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

self  in  a  personal  manner,  but  until  I  had  become  prac 
tically  convinced  and  settled  in  the  doctrine  that  the  love 
of  God  was  a  fountain  for  humanity,  free,  in  its  fulness, 
to  every  one  who  desired  it;  that,  nothing  at  all  was  re- 
quired to  make  it  mitie ;  that  it  zvas  mine  now  by  virtue  of 
7vhat  Christ  had  done  for  me,  to  which  nothing  could  be 
added  by  me.  Sin  and  the  world  are  alread}^  conquered 
so  far  as  that  persuasion  is  rooted  in  you  ;  hold  fast  to  it, 
and  in  a  little  while,  God's  glory  will  be  a  constant,  loving 
manifestation."  It  was  not  strange  that  his  peace  was 
like  a  river,  not  strange  that  his  heart  was  prepared,  so 
that,  when  he  saw  the  approach  of  death,  he  could  write 
to  a  friend  :  "No  young  girl  ever  felt  a  more  delightful 
fluttering  in  the  prospect  of  a  European  tour,  than  I  feel 
in  the  prospect,  of  soon  seeing  the  Land  of  never  wither- 
ing flowers  ;  of  seeing  Christ  and  knowing  Him  and  being 
known  of  Him." 

You  want  to  go  with  a  prepared  heart  to  the  I^ord's 
table.  I  do  not  know  any  better  preparation  than  you 
will  find  in  that  single  thought  : — The  love  of  God  is  free, 
in  its  fulness,  to  every  one  who  desires  it.  Nothing  is 
required  to  make  it  yours  beyond  your  accepting  it.  It 
is  yours  now  by  virtue  of  what  Christ  has  done  for  you,  to 
which  nothing  can  be  added  by  you.  If  that  is  true,  you 
can  but  say  joyfully  as  you  move  towards  the  table  which 
tells  you  this  truth  in  symbol, — "  I  am  a  sinner,  1  am 
weak,  I  am  fallible,  I  am  unworthy,  but  the  love  of  God 
is  mine,  and  Christ  the  gift  of  His  love  is  mine,  and 
therefore  Christ's  table  is  mine.  It  is  my  Father  who 
presides  at  the  board,  it  is  my  Elder  Brother  who  meets 
me  there. " 


The  Gate  to  the  Cave.  177 

You  want  a  thought  to  feed  your  mind  while  you  eat  the 
bread  and  drink  the  cup.  This  thought  will  last  you  longer 
than  the  hour  of  communion.  The  love  of  God  is  free  in 
its  fulness ;  yours  now  by  virtue  of  what  Christ  has  done 
for  you.  Can  any  thought  impart  to  you  a  higher  joy  ? 
Can  the  hungriest  soul  desire  aught  else  to  satisfy  it  ? 

And  the  hour  of  communion  will  pass,  and  the  time 
come  round  but  too  quickly  when  you  must  plunge  again 
into  life's  busy  routine.  You  will  cast  a  glance  down  into 
the  seething  and  turmoil,  and  you  will  shrink.  You  will 
turn  back  to  the  peaceful  scenes  of  comnuinion  as  to  a 
mount  where  you  would  gladly  build  a  tabernacle  and  stay 
until  the  day  shall  come  for  drinking  the  wine  new  in  the 
heavenly  kingdom.  But  that  may  not  be.  The  world 
calls  you,  and  you  must  go  and  do  God's  work  in  the 
world  like  a  Christian  man  or  woman.  Take  this  with  you 
from  the  table  to  prepare  your  heart.  The  love  of  God  is 
free  in  its  fulness  to  every  one  who  desires  it.  It  is  yours' 
by  virtue  of  what  Christ  has  done  for  you.  That  thought 
will  give  a  new  character  to  your  life.  That  thought,  once 
grasped  and  held,  will  show  you  how  life  is  yours  with 
Christ — no  longer  the  wave  which  smites  and  drives  you 
at  will,  but  masteredhy  you,  made  to  help  you  on  to  God, 
and  to  make  you  meet,  through  its  vicissitudes  and  trials 
for  a  better  inheritance  with  the  saints  in  light. 


"  Too  soon  we  rise.     The  symbols  disappear  ; 

TheyVaj/,  though  not  the  love  is  past  and  gone. 
The  bread  and  wine  remove,  but  THpir  art  here, 
Nearer  than  ever,  still  my  Shield  and  Sun. 


178  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

I  know  that  deadly  evils  compass  me, 

Dark  perils  threaten,  yet  I  would  not  fear, 
Nor  poorly  shrink,  nor  feebly  turn  to  flee  ; 

Thou,  O  my  Christ,  art  buckler,  sword,  and  spear. 
But  see  !     The  pillar-cloud  is  rising  now, 

And  moving  onward  through  the  desert  night. 
It  beckons  and  I  follow  ;  for  I  know 

It  leads  me  to  the  heritage  of  light."  ^ 

'  Bonar. 


THE   GATE   TO   THE   SEA. 


PSALM   LXXVII. 

(19^  Thy  way  was  in  the  sea, 

And  Thy  paths  in  the  mighty  waters. 
And  Thy  footsteps  were  not  known. 

(20)   Thou  leddest  Thy  people  like  sheep 
By  the  hand  of  Moses  and  Aaron. 


XI. 

THE   GATE   TO   THE   SEA. 

Perhaps  no  illustration  of  divine  power  was  better 
adapted  to  impress  a  Hebrew  mind  than  this.  A  God 
who  could  rule  the  sea,  and  make  His  own  and  His  peo- 
ple's path  through  the  midst  of  it,  must  be  a  mighty  God. 
For  we,  made  familiar  with  the  sea  by  our  reading,  our 
travels,  our  scientific  researches,  our  sports — to  many  of 
whom  a  sea  vo3Qge  is  a  luxury — we  can  but  faintly  realize 
the  dread  which  the  ocean  inspired  in  a  Hebrew.  It  was 
a  significant  threat  which  Moses  threw  out  in  his  address 
to  the  Israelites,  that,  if  they  should  refuse  obedience  to 
God,  they  should  be  carried  back  to  Egypt  in  ships} 
They  would  have  dreaded  the  conveyance  as  much  as  the 
bondage  itself.  The  ocean  was  a  fearful  mystery,  and 
neither  science  nor  experience  mitigated  its  terrors.  You 
never  find  in  Old  Testament  poetry  any  of  those  mus- 
ings upon  the  beauty  of  the  sea,  any  of  those  expressions 
of  restfulness  and  delight  in  its  contemplation,  which  so 
abound  in  the  writings  of  modern  poets.  David's  ideal 
of  happy  repose  is  not  a  seaside  retreat,  but  a  walk  by  still 
waters.  It  is  when  he  wishes  to  picture  trouble,  grief, 
sore  extremity,   frightful  rage,  that  he  brings  in  the  sea, 

'  Deuteronomy  xxviii.  68. 


1 82  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

"All  Thy  waves  and  Thy  billows  are  gone  over  me, 
Deep  calleth  unto  deep  at  the  noise  of  Thy  water-spouts."  ' 
"  If  it  had  not  been  the  Lord  who  was  on  our  side  when 
men  rose  up  against  us,  when  their  wrath  Avas  kindled 
against  us,  then  the  proud  waters  had  gone  over  our  soul."  ' 
The  very  extreme  of  disaster  from  which  God  is  confidently 
appealed  to  as  a  refuge,  is  the  carrying  of  the  mountains 
into  the  midst  of  the  sea.  God  is  our  refuge  even  theft  ; 
"though  the  waters  thereof  roar  and  be  troubled,  though 
the  mountains  shake  with  the  swelling  thereof."  ^ 

And  therefore  it  added  greatly  to  the  impressiveness  of 
Israel's  deliverance  from  bondage,  that  it  was  associated 
so  wonderfully  with  that  realm  of  mystery  and  terror ;  that 
God  should  have  led  them  through  the  sea,  in  its  most  aw- 
ful aspect,  "  in  the  depth  of  midnight,  amidst  the  roar  of 
the  hurricane  which  caused  the  sea  to  go  back,  amidst  a 
darkness  lit  up  only  by  the  broad  glare  of  the  lightning,  as 
the  Lord  looked  out  of  the  thick  darkness  of  the  cloud."  * 
With  all  the  triumph  and  joy  which  accompanied  the  event, 
its  mysteriousness  was  distinctly  and  awfully  marked.  The 
dividing  of  the  sea  was  a  mystery  ;  the  pillar  of  cloud  and 
fire,  which  led  them  through  the  depths,  was  a  strange, 
weird,  awful  guide.  They  moved  through  mystery,  and 
after  mystery,  following  One  whose  footsteps  were  not 
known. 

Out  of  these  facts  there  springs  up  for  us  not  merely  an 
impressive  symbol,  but  a  great  practical  truth  ;  the  truth 
namely  that  those  who  follow  God,  follow  a  leader  whose 

'  Psalm  xlii.  7.  ''  Psalm  cxxiv.  2-5. 

'  Psalm  xlvl  2,  3.  *  Stanley,  Jewish  Church. 


The  Gate  to  the  Sea.  183 

footsteps  are  not  known  ;  that,  in  other  words,  he  who 
accepts  the  service  of  God  accepts  with  it  much  which  he 
cannot  understand,  finds  himself  constrained  both  to  do 
and  to  suffer  much  for  which  he  can  see  no  reason,  and 
to  order  his  life  after  a  plan  of  which  his  reason  cannot 
lake  in  the  whole  circumference.  Mystery,  in  short,  is 
bound  up  with  God's  revelation  and  dealing  with  the  human 
race  \  and  though  he  no  longer  cleaves  the  sea  nor  kindles 
pillars  of  fire,  it  remains  as  true  for  us  as  it  was  for  Israel 
that  His  way  lies  through  deep  places,  and  that  His  foot- 
steps are  not  known. 

The  pride  of  the  human  heart  rebels  against  such  an 
economy  as  this.  It  wants  to  understand  just  how  God 
makes  a  passage  through  the  sea ;  and  insists  on  forcing 
its  way  into  the  heart  of  the  cloudy  pillar  to  see  how  it  is 
made  up  ;  and  only  on  these  terms  will  it  yield  its  rever- 
ence and  obedience. 

And  yet  a  very  little  thought  will  expose  the  unreason- 
ableness of  human  reason  in  this  matter.  Such  talk  and 
reason  as  though  God  purposely  and  arbitrarily  thrust 
upon  them  an  economy  of  darkness  and  confusion  ;  as 
though,  in  mere  wantonness.  He  set  himself  at  work  to 
puzzle  them  ;  as  though  He  deliberately  beclouded  things 
which  they  have  the  right  and  the  ability  to  understand ; 
forgetting  that  the  ability  to  comprehend  God  is  just 
what  is  wanting ;  that  the  infi?iite  God  i7iust  be  incom- 
prehensible-to  a  finite  being  in  the  very  nature  of  tJw.  case  ; 
and  that  the  plans  and  dealings  of  an  infinite  Being  will 
naturally  partake  of  His  own  infinitude,  and  be,  therefore, 
on  a  scale  transcending  human  understanding.  Zophar 
put  the  case  to  Job,  and  rightly,  as  a  matter  of  simple  im- 


1 84  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country, 

possibility.  "  Canst  thou  by  searching  find  out  God  ? 
Canst  thou  find  out  the  Ahnighty  to  perfection?  It  is 
high  as  heaven  ;  what  canst  thou  do  ?  Deeper  than  hell ; 
what  canst  thou  know  ?  The  measure  thereof  is  longer 
than  the  earth  and  broader  than  the  sea."  ^  Take  a  little 
lad  of  ten  years,  and  put  him  into  an  assembly  of  states- 
men discussing  the  gravest  questions  of  diplomacy  and  in- 
ternational law,  to  carry  documents  and  messages  from 
one  desk  to  another.  In  that  assembly  the  lad  has  a  defi- 
nite place  and  a  definite  duty  which  he  can  understand 
and  do.  But  suppose  he  should  refuse  to  carry  a  paper 
of  which  he  did  not  understand  the  meaning  and  bearing. 
Suppose  he  should  throw  up  his  position  as  page,  on  the 
ground  that  he  was  not  made  acquainted  with  the  whole 
course  of  complicated  negotiation  carried  on  in  that 
chamber.  Would  any  sane  man  regard  the  boy  as  an  in- 
jured being  ?  Would  any  one  think  of  reproaching  those 
statesmen  with  unkindness  or  injustice  ?  Would  not  the 
lad  be  simply  laughed  at  ?  Even  supposing  that  every  man 
in  the  chamber  were  disposed  to  grant  his  ridiculous  demand 
and  to  explain  the  business  to  him — could  they  do  it? 
Could  the  child's  mind  grasp  the  destinies  of  nations  ? 
And  yet,  if  this  is  absurd,  what  shall  be  said  of  a  finite 
being,  with  his  scanty  knowledge,  with  his  limited  capa- 
city, with  his  little  range  of  experience,  refusing  allegiance 
to  a  God  whose  purposes  comprehend  eternity,  and  move 
in  orbits  vaster  than  his  utmost  reach  of  thought  can  even 
begin  to  conceive  ;  in  whose  plan  the  countless  details  of 
all  being  in  the  eternity,  past  and  future,  are  grouped  and 

'Job  xi  7-9. 


The  Gate  to  the  Sea.  185 

unified — what,  I  repeat,  shall  be  said  of  the  stupendous 
folly  of  a  poor  little  man,  the  difference  between  whom 
and  God  is  barely  shadowed  by  the  difference  between  a 
statesman  and  a  babe,  yet  who  refuses  allegiance  to  God 
because  he  cannot,  by  searching,  fmd  out  the  Almighty  to 
perfection  ? 

And  not  only  so,  but  on  their  own  principles,  such  men 
would  refuse,  if  they  could  understand  God.  The  proud- 
est of  them  would  say,  "  Never  will  I  bow  the  knee  to 
aught  less  than  the  infinite."  And  yet,  to  go  back  to  the 
illustration,  if  the  discussions  of  that  assembly  of  statesmen 
were  such  as  could  be  thoroughly  understood  by  a  child, 
if  he  could  mingle  freely  in  their  talk,  and  interchange 
ideas  with  them,  men  would  say  that  the  assembly  was 
a  farce,  and  that  its  members  were  unworthy  to  deal  with 
such  mighty  questions  ;  and  the  boy  himself  would  cease 
to  revere  them.  So,  if  1  may  thoroughly  know  God,  I 
nnist  cease  to  worship  Him.  I  cannot  adore  what  I  can 
measure.  If  His  plans  are  within  my  comprehension,  they 
are  finite.  If  there  is  nothing  in  God  which  I  cannot  find 
out  by  searching,  then  God  is  finite  and  is  not  God.  He 
lets  me  feel  the  touch  of  His  hand,  He  daily  compasses 
me  with  His  love.  He  draws  sharply  for  me  the  great  out- 
lines of  His  character.  He  restrains  and  forms  me  by  Hii 
law.  He  teaches  me  by  His  providence,  guides  me  by  His 
wisdom,  upholds  and  saves  me  by  His  power.  But  while 
there  is  thus  a  side  of  revelation  in  contact  with  me  and 
daily  available  for  me,  I  must  never  forget  that  it  is  orily  a 
side ;  that  God's  revelation  is  not  God,  but,  as  it  were,  a 
line  of  light  on  the  verge  of  a  narrow  horizon,  beyond 


1 86  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

which  lie  depths  and  glories  of  Divine  Being  unconceived 
and  inconceivable  by  the  heart  of  man. 

This  mystery  of  God's  being  naturally  extends  itself,  as 
has  been  hinted,  to  His  dealings  with  men.  It  is  no  more 
to  be  expected  that  we  can  understand  all  these  than  that 
we  can  understand  Him  ;  and  hence  His  way  in  the 
world's  history  has  been  very  largely  a  way  in  the  sea, 
marked  by  much  mystery  and  darkness,  beset  with  hard 
problems  which  we  are  quite  as  far  from  solving  as  were 
the  men  of  Job's  day.  There  is  the  great  mystery  of  evil 
for  instance.  Why  did  God  mark  out  His  path  right 
through  this  awful  fact  of  sin  ?  How  did  it  come  into  the 
world  }  Why  is  it  not  swept  away  by  a  righteous  and 
pure  God?  Why  must  the  Church  spring  up  from  the 
blood  of  the  martyrs  ?  Why  are  such  carnivals  of  blood 
and  lust  as  that  now  in  progress  under  the  very  eyes  of 
Christian  Europe,  tolerated  ?  Why  must  helpless  women 
and  innocent  children  suffer  at  the  hands  of  the  vile  Turk  ? 
Why  is  not  that  loathsome  blot  on  the  map  of  Europe 
wiped  out  at  a  stroke  ?  Why  do  good  men  suffer  and  bad 
men  prosper  ? 

Or  take  the  instruments  with  which  God  has  carried  on 
His  work  among  men,  a  work  involving  so  much  knowl- 
edge, delicacy,  and  tact.  He  led  His  people  by  the  hand 
of  Moses  and  Aaron  ;  of  Moses  whose  hasty  presumption 
debarred  him  from  the  Promised  Land  ;  of  Aaron  the 
maker  of  the  golden  calf;  by  the  hands  of  wily  and  selfish 
men  like  Jacob  ;  of  wild,  fierce  men  like  Samson  ;  of  men 
stained  with  murder  and  lust  and  effeminacy  like  David 
and  Solomon.  By  Elijah  the  prophet  of  fire ;  by  Thomas 
who  doubted,  and  by  Peter  who  deried.    So,  down  through 


The  Gate  to  the  Sea.  187 

the  history  of  the  Church,  the  Church  which,  somehow,  has 
been  a  power  in  the  earth  to  keep  aUve  faith  in  the  hearts  of 
men,  which  has  won  souls,  and  defended  the  truth  in  the 
face  of  death,  yet  with  such  a  large  mixture  of  passion,  pride, 
worldliness,  and  vanity  in  its  saints.  And  the  Church 
of  the  present !  Why  we  shall  be  texts  to  the  Church  of 
the  future,  as  the  Church  of  the  past  furnishes  texts  to 
us.  If  we  shall  be  held  up  as  examples  for  their  imitation, 
let  us  be  sure  that  we  shall  furnish  abundance  of  warnings 
also.  And  yet  God's  footsteps  move  on  through  all  this 
error,  weakness,  narrowness,  lovelessness  in  the  very 
Church  itself.  Still  He  continues  to  put  the  gospel  treasure 
in  earthen  vessels;  continues  to  commission  imperfect, 
erring  men,  to  train  and  guide  human  hearts  and  souls ; 
and  through  all  their  blundering,  evolves  results  which 
awaken  the  wonder  of  men,  and  the  joy  of  heaven. 

Individual  experience,  too,  proclaims  the  same  fact  from 
every  side.  Look  at  any  single  life ;  your  own,  if  you 
will,  for  you  know  that  best,  and  tell  me  if  God's  way  in 
it  has  not  been  as  a  way  in  the  sea.  Ah,  he  is  a  wise  man 
among  you  who  can  go  back  and  explain  his  life.  Talk 
of  mysteries  !  You  need  not  go  to  the  sea,  nor  to  the  rocks 
to  find  them.  Enwrapped  in  each  separate  manhood  and 
womanhood  is  a  mystery  of  providence  deeper  and  subtler 
than  any  that  the  sea  holds  in  its  bosom.  Child  of  God, 
Christian,  do  you  know  how  you  became  what  you  are 
to-day  ?  How  is  it  that  you  are  something  different  from 
what  you  meant  to  be,  not  so  great  it  may  be,  or  it  may 
be  greater  ?  Or  do  you  know  why,  supposing  you  are  or 
have  what  you  desired,  you  were  led  to  it  by  a  road  so  dif- 
ferent from  that  which  you  chose  ?     Do   you  understand 


1 88  Gates  into  the  Psalm   Country. 

why  God  has  put  certain  responsibilities  upon  you,  the 
very  ones  from  which  you  shrank,  or  why.  on  the  other 
hand,  He  has  assigned  to  others  the  duties  you  coveted  ? 
Or  do  you  know  why  your  goal  of  earthly  good  is  still  be- 
low the  horizon,  and  why  God  keeps  you  plodding  along 
the  road  ?  He  has  smitten  you  where  you  thought  you 
did  not  deserve  it.  He  has  taken  av/ay  from  you  the 
earthly,  help  you  seemed  to  need  most ;  He  has  let  seven 
troubles  come  together  when  you  thought  you  had  your 
hands  full  with  one  ;  you  believe  God  has  led  you,  and 
yet  His  footsteps  are  not  known.  And  you  are  not  alone 
in  this  ;  you  are  in  good  company — the  noble  army  of 
Patriarchs,  Prophets,  Apostles — of  all  of  them  as  of  Israel 
on  the  night  of  the  exodus,  it  might  be  said,  "  Thou  leddest 
Thy  people  by  the  way  of  the  sea,  and  Thy  footsteps  were 
not  known."  It  was  a  curious  way  of  bringing  Israel  into 
Egypt  by  bereaving  Jacob.  It  was  a  strange  beginning  of: 
their  wonderful  emigration — the  finding  of  a  Hebrew  baby 
in  the  Nile  rushes.  The  sheepfold  was  a  strange  place  in 
which  to  look  for  a  king,  and  a  ruddy  shepherd  lad  a  sin- 
gular candidate  for  royalt3%  The  school  of  Hillel,  and  the 
Sanhedrim,  did  not  seem  likely  to  furnish  an  Apostle  of  a 
gospel  which  recognized  neither  Greek  nor  Jew,  Circum- 
cision nor  Uncircumcision.  Yet  so  it  has  been,  and  is. 
This  element  of  mystery  enters  into  the  personal  experi- 
ence of  God's  people  everywhere,  and  in  all  times.  On 
each  life  God  writes  this  comment  :  "  My  thoughts  are  not 
your  thoughts,  neither  are  your  ways  my  ways."  ' 

Accepting  this  fact,  then,  what  are  we  to  do  with  it? 

'  Isaiah  Iv.  8. 


772!^  Gate  to  the  Sea.  189 

We  have  seen  that  it  is  an  essential  fact  of  God's  infinity, 
and  an  universal  fact  in  the  history  of  His  dealings.  If 
we  deal  with  God  at  all  we  cannot  evade  it.  What 
then  ?  Shall  we  submit  to  it  passively  and  sadly,  as  those 
who  yield  to  the  inevitable,  and  'who  stand  chafing  at  a 
door  which  God  will  not  open  ? 

We  can  do  better  than  that.  There  is  nothing  discour- 
aging in  this  truth,  unless  we  persist  in  viewing  it  apart 
from  other  truths ;  and  no  truth  of  Scripture  was  ever  in- 
tended to  be  viewed  in  that  way. 

In  the  first  place,  we  are  not  to  conclude  that  because 
there  is  a  mystery  in  God's  dealings,  they  are  therefore 
without  a  plan.  The  ancient  Jew,  as  he  looked  upon 
the  sea,  saw  nothing  there  which  suggested  life  or  order 
or  good.  It  was  to  him,  as  we  have  seen,  the  type  of  all 
confusion,  danger,  and  trouble — a  mere  tumbling,  chaotic 
waste.  Not  so  the  modern  student.  To -him  the  heaving 
ocean  suggests  law  and  organized  life.  Its  expanse  is 
mapped,  its  depth  is  plumbed,  the  conformation  of  its  bot- 
tom is  known,  the  law  of  its  currents  is  determined,  and 
its  inhabitants  are  classified.  So,  in  viewing  the  deaHngs 
of  God,  often  so  dark,  and  confused,  and  api)arently  aim- 
ess,  we  are  always  to  remember  that  the  confusion  is  in 
us  and  not  in  God's  work  ;  that  God's  counsel  is  not  dark- 
ened because  we  are  blind. 

Again,  we  are  not  to  conclude  that  this  mystery  of  prov- 
idence is  the  outgrowth  of  unkindness.  Now  and  then 
you  will  hear  a  man  reasoning  on  this  wise  :  "  If  God 
vveie  the  benevolent  being  I  have  been  taught  to  believe 
Him,  surely  he  would  make  this  thing  a  little  clearer." 
That  is  very  poor  logic      The  man  of  olden  time,  with  his 


190  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

overwhelming  sense  of  the  mystery  and  terror  of  the  sea^ 
knew  not  the  bountiful  mercy  which  was  veiled  by  that 
mystery.  Likewise  mystery  on  God's  part  does  not  imply 
cruelty.  We  become  entirely  used  to  certain  invisible  and 
mysterious  influences  in  nature,  and  we  never  are  disposed 
to  question  their  utility  and  blessing  because  they  are  hid- 
den from  us.  The  various  atmospheric  influences  and 
electric  currents,  for  instance,  nourish  and  quicken  our 
life,  yet  the  most  ignorant  man  never  thinks  himself  hard- 
ly treated  because  he  does  not  know  the  secrets  of  the  air. 
We  carry  within  us  a  greater  mystery  than  any  providence 
of  God,  and  yet  we  do  not  call  God  cruel  because  he  does 
not  reveal  to  us  the  secret  of  the  soul's  life.  And  if  we 
accept  these  things  as  consistent  with  divine  benevolence, 
why  not  accept  others  equally  strange  to  u-s  ?  Luther  was 
once  in  earnest  prayer  over  some  matter  of  great  moment, 
desiring  to  know  the  mind  of  God  in  it,  and  it  seemed  as 
though  he  heard  God  say  to  him,  "  I  am  not  to  be  traced  :  " 
and  some  one,  commenting  on  this,  adds,  "  If  God  is  not 
to  be  traced,  He  is  to  be  trusted." 

The  writer  of  this  Psalm  has  evidently  reached  very  sat- 
isfactory conclusions  on  this  subject.  He  is  in  great  trou- 
ble and  darkness  ;  he  is  tempted  to  doubt  the  goodness 
of  the  Lord ;  he  asks,  "  Hath  God  forgotten  to  be  gra- 
cious ?  "  But  he  reaches  into  the  cloud  which  veils  the 
Divine  dealings,  and  draws  strength  and  comfort  out  of  it. 
He  says,  "  This  is  my  infirmity,  but  I  will  remember  the 
years  of  the  right  hand  of  the  Most  High  ;  "  those  very 
years  when  He  veiled  himself  in  darkness,  yet  amid  thun- 
ders and  hurricane  led  His  people  through  the  dark  and 
dreadful  sea.     "  Thy  way  was  in   the  sea,  and  Thy  path 


The  Gate  to  the  Sea.  19 1 

in  the  great  waters,  and  Thy  footsteps  were  not  known. 
Thou  leddest  Thy  people  Hke  a  flock." 

And  the  secret  of  this  confidence  is  revealed  in  the  13th 
verse,  in  the  words,  "  Thy  way,  O  God,  is  in  the  sanctu- 
ary ;  "  or,  as  the  best  interpreters  now  render  it,  "  Thy 
way  is  in  holiness^  Put  these  two  thoughts  together,  and 
one  explains  the  other.  Thy  way  is  in  the  sea,  dark,  mys- 
terious, dreadful ;  but  Thy  way  is  in  holiness  ;  in  perfect 
wisdom  inspired  by  perfect  love,  and  therefore  a  way  of 
truth,  leading  up  through  the  darkness  into  the  eternal 
light.  No  matter  how  strange  the  way,  if  it  be  a  way  of 
holiness.  What  kind  of  a  way  that  is  Isaiah  tells  us.'  It 
is-a  clean  way  :  "  the  unclean  shall  not  pass  over  it."  It 
is  a  plain  way  for  the  trusting  spirit  :  "  The  wayfaring 
men,  though  fools,  shall  not  err  therein."  It  is  a  i-^/^ 
way  :  "  No  ravenous  beast  shall  go  up  thereon."  It  is  a 
way/^r  redeemed  men,  redeemed  from  the  world's  econo- 
my of  sight  and  sense,  and  translated  into  the  kingdom 
and  life  of  faith  :  they  shall  walk  there,  yea  though  it  lie 
through  the  midst  of  the  sea,  with  songs  in  the  night  and 
with  everlasting  joy  upon  their  heads.  No  matter  how  deep 
the  mystery,  provided  God's  holiness  is  behind  it.  If  any 
one  less  than  God  invite  us  to  follow  him  into  the  dark, 
we  may  rightly  tremble  ;  but  if  He  leadeth  His  own  peo- 
ple like  a  Hock,  what  matters  it  by  what  ways  ?  So  long 
as  holiness  leads,  Asaph  and  Paul  may  unite  in  saying 
"  We  know  that  all  things  work  together  for  good  to  them 
that  love  God,  to  them  who  are  the  called  according  to 
His  purpose  ;  "  *  not  their  own  purpose.     If  God  calls  us 


'  XXXV.  8-10.  "  Romans  viii.  28. 


192  Gates  into  the  Psalm   Country. 

to  fulfil  His  purpose,  we  ought  to  expect  that  He  will  lead 
us  in  His  way,  and,  best  of  all,  to  His  goal ;  and  His  goal 
is — "  To  be  conformed  to  the  image  of  His  Son  ;"  '  but 
we  shall  not  be  that,  until  we  see  Him  as  He  is  ;  and  that 
will  not  be  here,  but  after  the  sea  shall  have  been  passed 
and  there  shall  be  no  more  sea. 

"  Thou  leddest  Thy  people."  The  whole  philosophy  ot 
life  is  here,  here  for  us  no  less  than  for  Israel.  If  we  think 
we  need  some  other  theory  of  living  because  the  Israel- 
ites were  only  poor  slaves,  and  we  intelligent  nineteenth 
century  Christians  (oi>  so  we  fancy),  we  are  greatly  mis- 
taken.  After  all  these  centuries,  God  has  nothing  to  add 
to  this,  that  men  let  Him  lead  them,  in  His  own  way, 
through  the  sea  if  so  He  will  it.  The  true  philosophy  of 
life,  I  repeat,  is  summed  up  here,  in  simply  follo'wi?ig  God. 
Over  the  Apennines  there  is  a  wonderful  railroad,  on  which, 
in  a  space  of  less  than  seventy  miles,  one  passes  through 
forty-three  tunnels,  some  of  them  of  very  great  length. 
The  road  is  full  of  magnificent  outlooks,  but  every  few 
moments  you  go  plunging  into  a  tunnel.  And  certainly 
the  traveller  over  this  road  would  show  his  good  sense  by 
sitting  still  and  being  carried  along  the  line  of  the  rail  ;  and 
not  by  getting  out  at  the  first  station,  and  striking  into 
the  mountains  to  find  another  path,  because  he  did  not 
like  the  tunnels.  He  would  be  almost  sure  to  be  lost 
and  to  starve  to  death.  The  road  has  been  built  to 
carry  him  to  his  destination  by  the  shortest  way,  and  he 
will  get  there  more  quickly  and  safely  through  the  tunnels 
than  in   any  other  way.      O,  if  we  could  only  believe  the 

'  Romans  viii.  29. 


The  Gate  to  the  Sea.  193 

same  thing  of  God's  way  !  We  want  to  build  our  own 
road,  all  out  in  the  light ;  and  the  consequence  is,  it  is 
much  less  direct  than  God's,  and  much  more  dangerous, 
and  we  cannot  bring  it  out  where  we  wish.  God's  way- 
lies  through  the  tunnels,  long  ones  often,  but  it  is  the 
best  road,  the  safest  road  :  we  shall  reach  the  end  most 
surely  and  quickly  by  it.  And  remember,  it  is  not  all 
tunnels  either  :  in  the  region  of  the  high  rocks,  where  the 
tunnels  are  needed,  are  the  most  glorious  prospects.  If 
God's  way  is  partly  in  darkness,  the  light  places  are  full 
of  beauty,  commanding  such  outlooks  of  mercy  and  love 
as  ought  to  reconcile  us  to  the  intervals  of  darkness. 

I  do  not  say  that  we  ought  not  to  make  plans,  nor  to 
try  to  carry  them  out.  Every  earnest  man  will  do  that  : 
only  there  is  wisdom  in  holding  our  plans  loosely,  and 
subject  to  God's  modification.  Too  often  we  are  fettered 
by  our  plans  :  our  minds  are  bent  on  carrying  out  our 
life  along  those  lines,  and  when  God  proceeds  to  change 
those  lines,  they  are  so  rigid  that  there  is  a  good  deal  of 
friction  and  pain  attending  the  change.  A  plan  assumes 
a  future,  and  involves  forecast ;  and  forecast  is  just  the 
point  where  we  are  weakest,  and  the  future  the  very 
thing  about  which  we  are  most  uncertain.  Therefore,  as 
a  matter  of  ordinary  probability,  our  plans  will  change  :  it 
is  not  to  be  supposed  that  we  shall  forecast  the  same 
things  which  Infinite  Wisdom  will  forecast  for  us.  It  is 
wisdom  to  accept  this  fact,  especially  since  we  see  it  con- 
stantly illustrated  in  experience.  I  doubt  if  many  men's 
success  lies  in  the  line  they  had  marked  out  :  often  it  lies 
in  something  running  parallel  with  what  they  call  their 
main  work,  in  something  which  they  style  incidental ;  but 
9 


194  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

the  future  proves  that  the  power  of  their  Ufe  centred  in 
the  incidental  and  not  in  the  main  work.  A  man,  for 
instance,  goes  into  a  country  town  to  pass  a  few  months. 
Perhaps  he  is  a  learned  man  ;  perhaps  an  eloquent  man  ; 
perhaps  he  has  written  books,  or  swayed  multitudes  from 
the  platform,  and  has  become  accustomed  to  associate 
his  efficiency  with  great  efforts  like  these.  And  he  prob- 
ably thinks  very  little  of  his  occasional  contact  with  the 
people  of  that  quiet  town.  He  goes  into  their  homes,  a 
Christian  gentleman,  winning  their  respect  and  confidence 
and  admiration  by  his  bright,  intelligent  talk,  and  his 
Christian  courtesy,  and  he  goes  away  never  perhaps 
dreaming  that  those  few  months  of  such  intercourse  may 
have  wrought  more  than  all  his  books  and  lectures.  The 
trouble  is  that  when  such  a  man  is  laid  aside  from  his 
greater  work,  and  compelled  to  accept  such  desultory 
work,  he  is  apt  to  rebel.  His  plan  of  life  was  laid  out  on 
what  seemed  to  him  the  longer  lines,  and  his  pride  is  hurt 
when  God  lays  it  out  on  what  appears  to  be  a  smaller 
scale.  Well  for  him  if  he  lets  God  lead  him.  We  are 
apt  to  provide  for  the  expansion  of  our  plans,  but  not  for 
shrinkage ;  and  he  is  the  wise  man  who  humbly  follows 
God's  leading  ;  who,  though  his  road  seems  to  lie  straight 
and  broad  before  him,  out  into  wide  domains  of  useful- 
ness, happiness,  and  power,  yet  when  God  suddenly  turns 
down  some  by-path,  full  of  windings,  leading  he  does  not 
dream  whither,  obediently  and  cheerfully  follows,  content 
to  go  in  dark  and  crooked  ways  with'  God,  rather  than  on 
the  widest  path  without  him.  I  remember  once,  in  Italy, 
climbing  a  mountain  up  which  a  broad,  fine  carriage  road 
led  almost  to  the  summit ;  but  there  the  road  suddenly 


The  Gate  to  the  Sea.  195 

ceased,  and  nothing  appeared  but  a  narrow  foot-path 
leading  round  the  shoulder  of  the  mountain,  and  that  soon 
dwindled  into  a  sheep-track  :  and  the  sun  beat  down  w^th 
terrible  power,  and  the  way  was  rough,  and  more  than 
once  I  was  tempted  to  go  back  ;  but  never  shall  I  forget 
the  vision  which  burst  upon  me  as  at  last  I  reached  the 
end  of  the  narrow  way  :  it  repaid  all  the  toil.  So,  I  say,  do 
not  be  afraid  of  the  narrow  way  if  God  turns  you  into  it. 
The  great  thing  is  that  He  lead  you  ;  and  if  He  lead,  even 
though  His  footsteps  are  not  known,  you  know  that  His 
way  is  in  holiness,  and  ends  at  last  in  eternal  good. 


THE  GATE  TO  GOD'S  ACRE. 


PSALM   XC. 

(i)  Lord,  Thou  hast  been  our  dwelling-place 
In  all  generations. 

(2)  Before  the  mountains  were  brought  forth, 

Or  ever  Tho^i  gavest  birth  to  the  earth  and  the  world, 
Yea,  from  everlasting  to  everlasting  Thou  art  God. 

(3)  Thou  turnest  frail  men  to  dust, 

And  Thou  sayest ;  '  Return,  ye  children  of  men.' 

(4)  For  a  thousand  years  in  Thy  sight 

Are  (but)  as  yesterday,  when  it  passeth, 
And  as  a  watch  in  the  night. 

(5)  Thou  sweepest  them  away  (as  with  a  flood)  ;  they  are  (as) 

a  sleep  in  the  morning  :  ' 
They  are  as  grass  which  springeth  afresh  : 

(6)  In  the  morning  it  flourisheth  and  springeth  afresh, 
In  the  evening  it  is  cut  down  and  withereth. 

(7)  For  we  have  been  consumed  by  thine  anger, 
And  by  Thy  fury  have  we  been  terrified  ; 

(8)  Thou  hast  set  our  iniquities  before  Thee, 

Our  secret  (sins)  in  the  light  of  Thy  countenance. 

(9)  For  all  our  days  are  passed  away  in  Thy  wrath, 
We  have  spent  our  years  as  a  thought  : 

(10)  The  days  of  our  years  are  threescore  years  and  ten, 

Or  (perchance)  by  reason   of  much  strength,  fourscore 

years ; 
And  their  pride  is  (but)  labor  and  vanity. 
For  it  passeth  swiftly,  and  we  have  fled  away. 

(11)  Who  knoweth  the  power  of  Thine  anger. 

And  Thy  wrath  according  to  the  fear  that  is  due  unto 
Thee? 

(12)  So  teach  us  to  number  our  days. 
That  we  may  gain  a  heart  of  wisdom. 

(13)  Return,  O  Jehovah  ! — How  long  ? — 

And  let  it  repent  Thee  concerning  Thy  servants. 

(14)  O  satisfy  us  in  the  morning  with  Thy  loving-kindness. 
That  we  may  sing  for  joy  and  be  glad  all  our  days. 

(15)  Make  us  glad  according  to  the  days  wherein  Thou  hast 

afflicted  us. 
The  years  wherein  we  have  seen  evil. 

(16)  Let  Thy  work  appear  unto  Thy  servants. 
And  Thy  majesty  upon  their  children. 

(17)  And  let  the  graciousness  of  Jehovah  our  God  be  upon 

us  ; 
And  the  work  of  our  hands  do  Thou  establish  upon  us ; 
Yea,  the  work  of  our  hands  establish  Thou  it. 

'  I   have   given   Hupfeld's   rendering  of   this  passage,  instead  of 
Perowne's.      So  also  Alexander. 


XII. 

THE  GATE  TO  GOD'S  ACRE. 

Let  your  thoughts  go  back  to  the  wilderness  of  the 
wanderings,  where,  for  nearl)^  forty  years,  the  Israelites 
have  been  working  out  the  terrible  curse  pronounced  on 
them  for  their  murmuring  and  rebellion.  To  Moses,  as  he 
gazed  upon  the  scene,  with  its  purple  mountains,  its  deep- 
ly cut,  narrow  valleys,  and  the  huts  of  the  people  cluster- 
ing about  the  tabernacle,  its  suggestions  and  memories 
must  be  well  nigh  overpowering.  Let  us  put  ourselves,  if 
we  can,  in  the  place  of  one  whose  life  had  been  largely 
given  to  the  guidance  of  this  people,  and  who  bore  them 
upon  his  heart  as  his  daily  care  ;  and  try  to  conceive  the 
overwhelming  power  of  this  single  thought — a  whole 
peoy)le  dying  out  in  this  lonely,  rocky  camp  ;  a  nation 
waiting  here  in  these  solitudes  until  their  fathers  shall  all 
have  passed  away  under  God's  curse.  And  this  was  but 
one  of  many  such  thoughts  which  must  have  crowded  on 
the  mind  of  the  man  of  God.  There  was  his  own  history. 
First  the  bulrush  ark,  then  the  royal  palace,  then  the  quiet 
years  in  the  mountain  solitudes  among  the  sheep,  then 
back  to  face  an  angry  king,  and  to  wield  the  rod  of  divine 
vengeance  over  his  empire,  then  the  work  for  which  all 
his  past  life  had  been  a  preparation,  the  endless,  wearying 
duties  of  the  leader  and  lawgiver  of  a  slave  population  en- 


200  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

tering  upon  the  inheritance  of  freedom  :  and  then,  as  he 
looked  forward,  no  more  rest  on  earth  :  no  dwelling  for 
him  among  the  sunny  corn-lands  and  vineyards  of  the 
Promised  Land.  He  too  had  sinned  and  he  should  not 
enter  in.  Forty  years  !  What  years  of  change,  of  care,  of 
decaying  and  renewed  life,  of  tried  patience  : — and  yet  they 
were  gone  like  a  dream,  and  the  new  generation  was  stir- 
ring with  the  hope  of  the  rest  in  the  new  land.  Death, 
change,  homelessness,  human  insignificance  and  frailty, 
these  were  the  stories  told  by  the  lonely  booths,  the  play- 
ing children,  and  his  own  whitened  locks.  What  words 
would  come  more  naturally  to  his  lips  under  the  burden 
of  such  thoughts,  than  these  :  "  Lord,  Thou  hast  been  our 
'dwelling-place  in  all  generations.  Ere  these  stern,  pur- 
ple mountains  reared  their  heads,  yea,  ere  the  solid  earth 
out  of  which  they  rise  was  created,  from  everlasting  to 
everlasting.  Thou  art,  O  God." 

It  is  the  oldest  of  stones,  sung  in  this  oldest  of  Psalms ; 
of  human  weakness,  turning  in  dismay  from  the  change 
and  decay  about  it,  to  find  refuge  in  the  eternity  of  God. 
The  Psalm  belongs  to  the  nineteenth  century  no  less  than 
to  Moses'  time.  It  deals  with  universal,  and  not  with 
temporary  and  local  truths.  Let  us  not  be  repelled  from 
it  because  its  undertone  is  sad  and  solemn ;  for  its  lesson 
is  wholesome  if  sad,  bracing  if  bitter,  and  leading  up  to 
conclusions  full  of  comfort  and  rest. 

We  cannot  fail  to  notice  how,  at  the  very  introduction 
of  this  sacred  poem,  we  are  confronted  with  a  theological 
truth,  dogmatically  stated  :  and,  in  the  general  prevalence 
of  the  prejudice  against  all  that  is  supposed  to  be  conveyed 
Dy  such  words  as  dogma,  doctrine,  and  theology,  it  will  do 


The  Gate  to   God's  Acre.  201 

Bible-readers  no  harm  to  be  r(^minded  how  much  of  all 
three  there  is  in  the  Scriptures,  underlying  even  its  poems 
and  allegories.  The  issue  between  doctrine  and  living, 
between  theology  and  religion,  is  often  raised  out  of  a 
misunderstanding  of  terms  :  since  there  is  no  life-truth 
(so  called)  which  does  not  rest  on  a  doctrine,  and  no  truth 
of  religion,  which  does  not  belong  equally  to  theology. 
The  fact  that  a  truth  is  a  part  of  a  theologic  system  does 
not  afiect  its  value  any  more  than  the  healing  qualities  of 
a  familiar  field-plant  are  destroyed  by  its  classification  in 
a  botanical  treatise. 

Look  now  at  this  Psalm,  and  observe  that  it  sets  out 
with  the  definite  statement  of  a  theologic  doctrine,  no  less 
so  because  the  form  of  statement  is  poetic  ; — the  doctrine 
of  THE  Eternitv  OF  GoD.  And  here  we  may  gain  some 
idea  of  the  way  in  which  the  Bible  teaches  theology.  This 
doctrine,  for  instance,  is  well  adapted  to  call  out  theologic 
musing.  Set  the  mind  at  work  on  this  simple  thought, 
God  is  eternal,  and  how  the  vast  theme  absorbs  and  leads 
it  captive.  How  thought  struggles  with  the  problem  of 
existence  without  beginning  and  without  end.  But  the 
Bible  never  leads  us  so  long  in  that  direction,  as  to  suffer 
us  to  become  unconscious  of  our  own  spiritual  condition. 
It  furnishes  abundance  of  themes  adapted  to  excite  mus- 
ing and  speculation,  but  it  never  suffers  these  musings  to 
be  an  end  unto  themselves.  The  attributes  of  God,  omni- 
science, omnipotence,  justice,  immutability,  are  not  set 
forth  merely  as  a  pageant  to  excite  wonder  and  awe.  How- 
ever Inspiration  may  kindle  over  them  into  poetic  raj^ture,  it 
is  not  long  ere  it  begins  to  set  them  forth  in  their  relations 
to  the  conscience  and  to  the  life.  If  it  portrays  the  glory  of 
9-" 


202  Gates  into  the  Psahn  Country. 

God  in  tile  starry  heavens,  it  turns  naturally  to  the  perfec- 
tion of  the  moral  law  as  illustrated  by  the  natural  law.' 
If  it  kindles  at  the  thought  of  the  protecting  tenderness  of 
divine  love,  in  almost  the  next  bi'eath  it  puts  a  prayer 
upon  the  readers  lips,  laden  with  confession  of  helplessness, 
and  with  desire  for  the  shelter  of  the  wings  of  love.''  The 
grandest  portraitures,  the  most  glowing  statements  of  ab- 
stract truth,  bear  on  their  face  a  design  to  affect  man's 
moral  susceptibilities,  to  call  out  his  love  and  homage,  to 
foster  his  loyalty,  to  make  him  rejoice  in  moral  order,  and 
order  his  steps  in  the  Divine  Word. 

In  this  Psalm,  therefore,  we  are  not  suffered  to  waste 
time  in  the  attempt  to  comprehend  the  abstract  truth  of 
God's  eternity.  The  truth  itself  is  plainly  shown  to  have 
a  practical  bearing  upon  our  mortal  life,  and  this  is  the 
chief  end  for  which  it  is  presented.  We  are  lifted  for  the 
moment,  in  order  that  we  may  descend  ;  suffered  to  grasp 
a  few  of  the  treasures  of  the  Divine  Glory,  that  we  may 
carry  them  back  to  glorify  our  earthly  life. 

Thus,  in  the  first  place,  this  splendid  thought  of  the 
divine  eternity  is  made  fo  touch  the  shifting  and  incon- 
stant character  of  our  earthly  state,  by  the  single  word 
"  dwelling-place."  "  Lord,  a  home  hast  Thou  been  to  us, 
in  generation  and  generation."  We  have  seen  with  what 
relief  Moses  turned  from  the  thought  of  the  desert  wander- 
ings of  the  Israelites,  to  that  of  an  abiding  dwelling-place 
in  God  ;  and  Paul  puts  himself  in  the  same  attitude  when 
he  says  to  the  Corinthians,  "  For  we  know  that  if  our 
earthly  house  of  this  taber-nacle  (or  tent)  were   dissolved, 

'  Psalm  xix.  *  Psalm  xvii.  7,  8. 


The  Gate  to  God's  Acre.  203 

we  have  a  building  of  God,  a  house  not  made  with  hands, 
eternal  in  the  heavens."  '  Now  first  this  truth  of  God's 
eternity  assumes  a  real  interest  to  us.  What  matters  it  to 
me  that  God  is  eternal,  if  He  be  only  the  Epicurean's  God, 
sitting  aloof  in  eternal  bliss  and  splendor,  and  letting  time 
and  change  work  their  will  with  me  and  mine  ?  But  now 
God's  eternity  opens  itself  to  my  needs.  I  am  a  wan- 
derer on  earth,  there  is  an  eternal  home  for  me  :  I  am 
weary,  there  is  eternal  rest  for  me  ;  1  am  sick  of  confu- 
sion and  change,  there  is  eternal  abiding  in  Him  who  is 
the  same,  yesterday,  to-day  and  forever,  and  only  a  change 
"into  the  same  image  from  glory  to  glory."  ''■  The  eternity 
of  God  puts  itself  at  my  disposal  to  change  my  broken  and 
transient  communion  with  Him  into  eternal,  confidential 
fellowship  with  Him  ;  to  give  me,  for  occasional  glimpses 
of  His  face,  the  everlasting  vision  of  the  King  in  His 
beauty :  to  renew  eternally  the  sweet  Christian  kinships 
and  friendships  which  have  passed  away  like  a  blessed 
dream,  and  left  a  long  heartache  behind.  "An  eternal 
home  !  "  Often,  as  you  walk  through  the  halls  of  the  Vati- 
can, you  may  read  these  words  on  the  tablets  brought 
thither  from  the  tombs  of  the  heathen  dead ;  but  the  words 
freeze  the  heart  as  you  read  in  them  the  utterance,  not  of 
hope,  but  of  despair.  This  is  the  eternal  home ;  this 
gloomy  catacomb,  this  marble  coffin.  Better  Moses  amid 
the  rocks  of  the  desert,  and  the  fragile  huts  of  the  long 
wandering  tribes,  with  faith  beholding  an  eternal  home  in 
the  eternal  God,  than  the  Roman  Patrician,  turning  from 
his  city  of  palaces  to  confront  nothing  but  a  charnel-house. 

'  2  Corinthians  v.  1.  '2  Corinthians  iii.  18. 


204  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

But  a  correct  view  of  the  eternity  of  God  conveys  warn- 
ing as  well  as  comfort.  The  more  it  is  studied,  the 
stronger  is  the  contrast  into  which  it  throws  the  brevity 
and  uncertainty  of  human  life.  From  this  brevity  and  un- 
certainty we  look  up  for  refuge  :  from  the  refuge  we  look, 
down  upon  human  life  with  a  deepened  sense  of  its  insig- 
nificance. This  is  the  thought  carried  on  in  the  next  four 
verses  of  the  Psalm  ;  for 

ist. — The  eternal  power  of  God  convicts  us  of  helpless- 
ness. Notice  the  sharp  contrast.  *'  From  everlasting  to 
everlasting,  O  God,"  Thy  life  is  self-sustained — in  Thine 
own  power  :  man's  life,  that  gift  in  which  he  so  exults  and 
on  which  he  presumes  to  play  "  such  fantastic  tricks  be- 
fore high  heaven," — that  which  flowers  out  in  his  pride 
and  high  endeavor,  in  his  ambitions,  plans,  and  grand  en- 
terprises, is  a  thing  so  little  in  his  power,  that  Thou  turn- 
est  him  even  unto  the  finest  dust  with  a  word ;  and,  with 
another  word, — "  Return,  ye  children  of  men  " — callest 
others  into  being  to  fill  his  place. 

2d. — The  eternal  being  of  God  is  used  to  convict  us  of 
delusion.  We  measure  life  by  false  standards.  The  Psalm 
brings  us  back  to  the  true  rule  of  measurement.  "  A 
thousand  years,  in  Thy  sight,  are  but  as  yesterday  when  it 
is  past,  and  as  a  watch  in  the  night.  Teach  us  to  num- 
ber our  days  by  Thy  standard,  that  we  may  be  wise."  That 
old  delusion,  older  than  Moses,  is  woven  into  man's  very 
nature,  and  is  fed  and  flattered  with  every  gilded  cheat 
that  his  fancy  can  devise  ;  the  delusion  which  leads  him 
to  think  seventy  years  a  long  time.  What  need  to  dwell 
on  a  theme  so  trite,  were  it  not  that  the  delusion  shows 
itself  still  so  fruitful  in  mischief?     Still  the  evil  servant 


The  Gate  to  God's  Acre.  205 

saith,  "  My  Lord  delayeth  His  coming,"  '  and  begins  to  eat 
and  drink  with  the  drunken,  and  to  beat  his  fellow-ser- 
vants. Still  the  master  of  the  house  comes  suddenly,  and 
finds  the  trusted  servant  with  ungirded  loins  and  extin- 
guished lamp.  Still  men  waste  the  hours,  and  delay  re- 
pentance, and  persist  in  rebeUion,  and  at  the  bottom  of 
all  is  this  old  cheat — life  is  long,  there  is  time  enough  ; 
and  notwithstanding  all  the  denials  repeated  and  empha- 
sized by  the  swiftly  passing  generations,  and  by  the  daily 
growing  cities  of  the  dead,  we  still  have  need  that  Moses 
call  to  us  out  of  the  desert,  and  tell  us  that  even  the  patri- 
archs' lives  of  centuries  are  represented  to  God's  eye  by 
a  vanished  yesterday,  or  a  brief  night-watch.  What  life  is 
long,  measured  by  an  eternal  standard  ?  Well  said  Ben- 
gel,  "  As  to  a  rich  man,  a  thousand  pounds  are  as  a  penny, 
so  to  God,  a  thousand  years  are  as  a  day."  Evidently 
we  are  poor  reckoners  when  life  is  a  factor  of  the  problem. 
We  need  eternal  wisdom  to  teach  us  to  number  our  days, 
so  as  to  apply  our  hearts  unto  wisdom. 

These  suggestions  are  enforced  by  the  figures  which 
follow.  They  will  bear  study  :  for  they  are  not  the  mere 
overflowings  of  the  poet's  imagination.  Each  of  them 
sets  forth  a  truth  of  its  own.  There  is,  first,  the  fact  that 
man  passes  swiftly  from  life.  "Thou  carriest  them  away 
as  with  a  flood."  And  here  let  us  try  to  get  before  us  the 
picture  which  Moses  had  in  mind,  without  which  the  say- 
ing will  lose  much  of  its  force.  He  stood,  as  we  have 
seen,  in  the  desert,  amid  mountains  penetrated  by  deep 
and  narrow  valleys,  and  he  knew  what  a  mountain  torrent 


■  Matthew  xxiv.  48. 


2o6  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

was  in  those  pent  up  defiles — a  boiling,  roaring  flood,  fill- 
ing a  valley  sometimes  to  the  depth  of  four  hundred  feet, 
carrying  down  huge  boulders  of  rock  as  though  they  were 
so  many  pebbles,  and  sweeping  whole  families  to  destruc- 
tion. Remember  that  a  single  thimder-storm,  with  a  heavy 
shower  of  rain,  falling  on  the  naked  granite  mountains,  is 
suflacient  to  convert  a  dry  and  level  valley  into  a  roaring 
river  in  a  few  short  hours,  and  you  have  some  faint 
idea  of  the  intensity  with  which  the  swiftness  of  man's 
passage  from  time  to  eternity  appealed  to  the  mind  of 
Moses.  "  Thou  carriest  men  away  from  life,  as  a  moun- 
tain torrent,  rising  in  an  hour,  sweeps  away  the  frail  hut 
that  man  has  built." 

Take  the  next  figure  :  and  to  the  same  thought  of  the 
swift  passage  of  life,  we  have  added  that  of  its  unsubstan- 
tial, unreal  character,  and  of  man's  unconsciousness  of 
its  passage.  Punctuate  the  fifth  verse  so  as  to  read, 
"  They  are  as  a  sleep  in  the  morning."  We  lie  down  and 
wake,  hours  have  passed,  we  know  not  how,  yet  the  inter- 
val has  been  filled  with  dreams.  We  have  been  busy,  we 
have  achieved  great  triumphs,  we  have  made  long  jour- 
neys, we  have  happily  escaped  from  old  troubles  ;  but  as 
the  morning  dawns,  and  we  spring  up  at  the  rising  of  the 
sun  to  face  life's  actual  work  again,  how  dim  and  distant 
and  unreal  appear  all  these  visions  of  the  night.  The  suc- 
cess is  not  achieved,  the  old  trouble  not  escaped.  Perhaps 
we  have  O'/erslept  ourselves,  and  we  are  surprised  and  angry 
to  find  how  much  time  sleep  has  stolen  from  us,  while  it 
has  been  beguiling  us  with  dreams.  Is  it  not  a  conmion 
experience,  when  a  birthday  or  an  anniversary  comes  to 
\is  like  a  waking  hour,  that  we   are   startled   to  find  how 


The  Gate  to   GocTs  Acre.  207 

old  we  are,  how  little  we  have  done,  how  many  plans  we 
must  abandon,  and  wonder  what  has  become  of  the  time, 
and  wliy  that  work  which  has  kept  our  hand  so  busy  and 
our  brain  so  fretted,  seems  such  a  little  unreal  thing  after 
all  ?  "  Surely  every  man  walketh  in  a  vain  shew  ;  surely 
they  are  disquieted  in  vain."  '  And  when  we  shall  have 
awaked  in  God's  likeness,  to  see  no  more  "through  a 
glass,  darkly,"  but  "  as  we  are  seen,"  and  to  "know  as 
we  are  known," '  we  shall  realize  what  we  have  so  often 
sung  together  on  earth, 

"  This  life's  a  dream,  an  empty  show." 

Again,  look  at  the  third  image  :  the  grass  which  flourish- 
efh  in  the  morning  and  is  cut  down  at  evening.  Here 
still  is  the  old 'key-note — the  quick  passing  of  the  life  ;  but 
with  a  new  thought,  namely,  how  the  beauty  and  strength 
and  aspiration  of  life  are  disregarded  in  the  swift  flight  of 
time.  The  grass  may  be  taken  here  as  the  representa- 
tive of  vegetation  generally  ;  of  something  which  is  sown 
or  planted  with  a  view  to  future  beauty  or  use  ;  which 
struggles  ever  more  into  the  light,  and  takes  on  colors, 
and  blooms  ;  yet  what  cares  the  mower  for  the  beauty  of 
a  million  of  prairie-flowers  ?  Human  life  is  full  of  plans 
and  ambitions  ever  growing  toward  something,  rejoicing 
in  beauty  or  looking  forward  to  fruitfulness,  and  yet  it  is  a 
familiar  subject  of  comment  how  little  time  the  best  man 
is  allowed  to  work  out  his  plans.  Just  as  he  is  ready  to 
do  the  best  work  of  his  life,  with  his  gathered  experience 
and  matured  power,  the  blow  falls,  and  the  voice  of  God 
says,  "return  unto  the  dust." 

'  Psalm  xxxix.  6.  '  i  Corinthians  xiii.  12. 


2o8  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

It  is  cut  down.  Why  this  strong  expression,  as  if  it 
were  not  left  to  wither  of  itself,  but  were  destroyed  by  vio- 
lence ? 

The  question  marks  the  transition  to  the  next  portion 
of  the  Psalm,  embraced  in  the  next  four  verses.  This 
matter  of  brief  life  and  swift  death  is  a  mystery,  is  it  also 
an  accident .?  Man  does  not  always  die  by  violence,  often 
he  lives  longer  than  he  can  serve  society,  and  passes 
away  by  what  is  called  a  natural  death,  and  yet  he  is  de- 
scribed as  cut  down.  Already  in  the  Psalm  we  have  had 
a  hint  of  a  power  and  will  behind  this  mystery  of  death. 
It  is  not  said,  man  returns  to  dust,  but  "  Thou  turnest 
him ;"  and  these  four  verses  now  bring  out  clearly  the 
theme  of  which  only  single  chords  have  been  struck,  this 
namely,  death  is  a  cutting  off,  because  of  God's  wrath 
against  sin.  Listen  !  "  We  fail  in  Thine  anger,  in  Thy 
wrath  are  we  affrighted.  Thou  hast  set  our  iniquities  be- 
fore Thee,  our  secret  sins  in  the  light  of  Thy  countenance. 
For  all  our  days  are  gone  in  Thine  anger,  we  consume 
our  years  like  a  thought." 

Man,  therefore,  is  not  here  represented  as  u?2fortJinate, 
but  as  guilty.  Not  as  the  victim  of  accident,  but  as  the 
subject  of  punishment.  The  Bible,  as  some  one  remarks, 
throws  the  blame  of  death  on  man  himself.  And  here 
again  we  have  our  poet  teaching  theology.  Paul  will 
take  the  thought  out  of  its  poetical  form,  and  put  it  for 
you  in  set  and  logical  phrase.  "As  by  one  man  sin  en- 
tered into  the  world,  and  death  by  sin,  and  so  death  passed 
upon  all  men,  for  that  all  sinned."  ' 

'  Romans  v.  12. 


The  Gate  to  God's  Acre.  209 

Ar.d  so  the  Bible  wastes  no  time  in  sentimental  condo- 
lence over  the  brevity  of  life  and  the  swift  coming  of 
death.  It  is  a  fact  to  be  dealt  with,  and  not  merely  be- 
moaned. When  the  dweller  in  the  mountain  valley  sees 
the  water  beginning  to  pour  down  along  the  dry  channels, 
that  is  not  the  time  for  him  to  sit  down  and  mourn  that 
fate  has  led  him  to  plant  his  home  in  such  a  spot.  The 
devouring  flood  flows  faster  than  his  tears,  and  he  must 
be  up  quickly  and  away  to  the  high  lands.  Tlie  Bible 
speaks  to  man  as  to  one  that  must  be  saved.  "  Thou  art 
a  sinner,  O  man  !  Thou  art  swept  away  like  a  flood  be- 
cause of  sin.  Thou  art  frightened  because  death  draws 
nigh.  Thou  mayst  well  be  frightened,  but  not  at  death. 
That  which  is  behind  death,  that  which  propels  it  so  swiftly 
and  resistlessly  is  more  terrible  than  death,  the  wrath  of  a 
holy  God  against  sin."  God  has  no  easy  good-nature  or 
false  tenderness  which  lead  Him  to  conceal  the  terrors  of 
sin.  It  is  the  Comforter  who  convinces  of  sin  and  of 
judgment.'  His  face  beams  with  tenderness  upon  man, 
His  voice  calls  him  to  find  his  home  and  his  rest  in  the 
eternal  God,  but  the  very  brightness  of  His  face  which 
lights  up  the  way  to  eternal  rest,  brings  out  with  terrible 
distinctness  the  outlines  of  human  iniquity,  and  the  secret 
sins  which  lurk  in  the  deepest  heart. 

And  it  is  interesting' to  see  how,  in  this  old  Psalm,  the 
same  low  views  of  this  subject  are  recognized  and  cen- 
sured, which  characterize  a  large  class  of  modern  religion- 
ists. "  Who  knoM'eth  the  power  of  Thine  anger  ?  "  "  Who 
knoweth  Thy  wrath  as  becomes  those  that  fear  Thee  ?  " 

'  John  xvi.  7,  8. 


2IO  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

Then  as  now,  men  were  prone  to  say,  "  Man  is  to  be 
pitied  :  man  is  the  victim  of  circumstances :  man  is  not 
guilty,  but  unfortunate  :  man  is  not  depraved,  but  fet- 
tered :  man  deserves  not  punishment,  but  compassion  : 
sin  is  no  ground  for  wrath,  but  for  tolerance."  True  it 
is  that  the  Bible  is  an  evangel  of  love  and  pardon  and 
compassion  :  true  that  God  knoweth  our  frame  and  re- 
membereth  that  we  are  dust  :  true  that  "  like  as  a  father 
pitieth  his  children,  so  the  Lord  pitieth  them  that  fear 
him  ; " '  but  also  true  that  the  Bible,  from  beginning  to 
end,  blazes  like  Sinai  with  God's  hatred  of  sin,  resounds 
with  warnings  of  man's  danger  from  sin,  and  sets  forth  as 
in  letters  of  fire  that  man  is  responsible  for  sin,  and 
liable  to  its  penalties  :  true  that  History  and  Prophecy 
and  Psalm  and  Gospel  and  Epistle  are  grouped  round  one 
definite  purpose,  to  save  hini  from  the  jDOwer,  dominion, 
and  consequences  of  sin.  In  view  of  these  terrible  facts, 
and  of  men's  persistent  blindness  to  the  power  of  God's 
anger  then  as  now,  is  it  strange  that  Moses  prayed,  is 
there  not  good  cause  for  us  to  pray,  "  Teach  us  to  num- 
ber our  days  ?"  Teach  us  how  short  our  life  is  :  teach  us 
the  true  meaning  of  its  brevity,  as  a  punishment  and  not 
as  an  unhappy  accident :  teach  us  how  we  may  use  its 
brief  hours  to  escape  the  consequences  of  God's  wra  th  : 
teach  us  to  number  our  days,  until,  as  Thy  humble  pupils 
we  bring  a  heavenly  wisdom  to  bear  upon  the  conduct  of 
our  lives. 

The  remaining  five  verses  bring  us  back  to  the  starting 

'  Psalms  ciiL  1 3. 


The  Gate  to  God's  Acre.      '  211 

point  of  the  Psalm.  Whither  should  these  contempla- 
tions of  human  mortality  as  related  to  sin,  and  of  divine 
wrath  against  sin,  cause  us  to  turn  but  to  God,  our  eter- 
nal home  ?  Whither  shall  a  sinful,  short-lived  man  flee, 
but  to  a  holy  and  eternal  God  ?  What  can  he  say  amid 
the  gathering  sadness  of  his  swift-going  days,  amid  the 
maze  of  his  sins  and  infirmities,  in  his  terror  at  the  on- 
coming judgment — what  but  this,  ''  Lord  Thou  art  our 
dwelling-place  in  all  generations  ?  "  Thither  turns  the 
prayer  of  these  last  tive  verses,  and  turns  with  hope  and 
confidence.  Man  is  the  subject  of  God's  wrath,  but 
there  is  mercy  with  Him  to  satisfy  him  who  flees  from  the 
wrath  to  come.  Man  is  a  pilgrim  and  a  stranger,  with 
no  continuing  city,  but  there  is  gladness  and  rejoicing  in 
God  for  all  his  brief  days.  Man's  beauty  consumes  as 
the  moth,  but  "  the  beauty  of  the  Lord  our  God  "  shall  be 
upon  him,  and  that  beauty  is  immortal,  untouched  by 
time  and  change.  Man's  work  is  fragmentary,  his  plans 
often  disconcerted,  his  grandest  enterprises  nipped  in  the 
bud  by  death,  but  God's  touch  upon  human  work  imparts 
to  it  the  fixedness  of  eternity  ;  and  if  He  establish  the 
work  of  our  hands,  it  shall  abide  though  the  world  pass 
away  and  the  lust  thereof.  He  will  make  good  the  suf- 
ferings of  sin  by  the  joys  of  Holiness.  Glory,  beauty, 
establishment.  A  strange  ending  of  this  wail  from  the 
desert ;  and  yet  not  strange  in  the  gospel  light  in  which 
we  read  it  to-day.  It  is  only  the  prophecy  of  the  saved 
man's  triumph  over  mortality  and  sin  and  death  :  of  the 
victim  of  the  Jovvn-sweeping  flood  snatched  from  its  fury, 
and  landed  safely  in  the  eternal  dwelling-place  in  "  the 


212  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

everlasting  arms  :  "  of  "the  mown  grass  garnered,  of  the 
sleeper  awaking,  satisfied,  in  God's  likeness.  It  is  the 
foreshadowing  of  that  blessed  story  of  the  wandering  son 
brought  home  at  last,  and  seated  at  the  Father's  table  to 
go  no  more  out  forever. 


THE   GATE   TO   REST. 


PSALM   CXVI. 

(7)  Return  unto  thy  rest,  O  my  soul,  for  the  Lord  hath  dealt 
bountifully  with  thee. 


XIII. 

THE   GATE   TO  REST. 

This  Psalm  is  an  expression  of  thanksgiving  for  deliver- 
ar.ce  from  some  great  trouble.  The  trouble  is  set  forth  in 
very  strong  language.  "  The  sorrows  of  death  compassed 
me,  and  the  pains  of  hell  gat  hold  upon  me  :  I  found  trou- 
ble and  sorrow."  The  deliverance  is  referred  directly  to 
God.  "  He  hath  heard  my  voice  and  my  supplications. 
I  was  brought  low  and  He  helped  me.  Thou  hast  deliv- 
ered my  soul  from  death,  mine  eyes  from  tears  and  my 
feet  from  falling."  And,  thus  satisfied  that  he  owes  his 
deliverance  to  God,  the  Psalmist  encourages  his  own  soul 
to  be  tranquil  once  more.  Thou  hast  been  disturbed,  tor- 
mented with  the  sorrows  of  death.  Thy  rest  has  been 
rudely  broken.  But  God  hath  delivered  thee,  return  unto 
thy  rest,  O  my  soul. 

We  cannot  doubt  where  that  soul's  point  of  rest  would 
be  found.  It  simply  goes  back  to  God  who  has  dealt 
bountifully,  and  rests  in  Him.  Rests  lovingly  ;  "  I  love  the 
Lord  because  He  hath  heard  my  voice  :  "  rests  obediently  ; 
"  I  will  walk  before  the  Lord  in  the  land  of  the  living  :"  rests 
adoringly  ;  "  I  will  take  the  cup  of  salvation  and  call  up- 
on the  name  of  the  Lord:"  xQSis  thankfully ;  "I  will 
offer  to  Thee  the  sacrifice  of  thanksgiving  : "  rests  believ- 
iiigly  i    'I  believed,  therefore  have  I  spoken."     God  is  to 


2i6  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

that  soul  the  permanent  centre  of  love,  obedience,  adora- 
tion, thanksgiving,  and  faith. 

This  idea  of  rest  in  God,  is  in  some  sense  a  very  famil- 
iar one  to  our  Christian  thought.  It  may  be  called,  in- 
deed, one  of  our  staple  ideas.  It  cannot  be  too  familiar  ; 
but  to  be  fully  available  it  wants  to  be  studied  on  all  sides, 
and  penetrated  to  its  very  core.  The  deeper  we  get  into 
it,  so  far  from  finding  ourselves  in  a  region  of  speculation 
and  abstruse  philosophy,  we  shall  find  ourselves  closer  to 
truths  which  touch  our  life  and  thinking  at  vital  practical 
points.  What  I  have  to  say  concerns  not  so  much  our 
attitude  of  restful  faith,  as  it  does  God  Himself  as  the  cen- 
tre of  our  rest ;  and  if  our  faith  has  perchance  in  any  way 
strayed  from  its  resting  point,  perhaps  these  contempla- 
tions may  help  to  draw  it  back. 

Possibly  we  have  come  to  think  it  unnecessary  for  us 
ever  to  inquire  into  the  nature  of  our  belief  in  God.  We 
say,  '■'■Of  course  we  believe  in  God."  God  is  a  fixed,  unal- 
terable fact  in  our  religious  consciousness  :  God  is  taken 
for  granted  by  us  in  our  thinking  and  doing  :  the  belief  in 
God  has  become  so  habitual  that  it  is  in  some  sense  un- 
conscious :  we  should  as  soon  think  of  going  down  every 
month  to  examine  the  foundations  of  the  house  we  live  in. 
Well,  my  question  is,  whether  it  may  not  be  desirable  to 
go  down  now  and  then  to  this  foundation  truth,  God  ? 
Whether  it  may  not  be  well  to  bring  it  distinctly  into 
our  consciousness  ?  Such  a  thing  might  be  as  a  right  foun- 
dation-stone wrongly  laid.  Probably  none  of  us  doubts 
the  existence  of  God  ;  probably  all  of  us  acknowledge  Him 
as  our  Creator ;  probably  most  of  us  pay  God  some  for- 
mal, stated  recognition  at  least ;  and  yet  all  this  does  not 


The  Gate  to  Rest.  217 

make  it  superfluous  for  us  to  examine  the  practical  rela- 
tion of  the  idea  of  God  to  our  minds.  What  is  God  to 
us  ?  How  does  He  lie  in  our  thought  ?  How  does  the 
thought  of  God  bear  upon  us  ?  What  does  it  do  for  us  ? 
How  much  does  it  restrain  us  ?  It  has  a  resting-place  in 
our  souls,  how  much  do  we  rest  on  it  ?  What  do  we  lay 
U[)on  it  and  refer  to  it?  For  what  does  it  stand  as  re- 
spects our  views  of  our  origin,  our  conduct,  our  destiny  ? 
It  is  just  possible  that,  after  prosecuting  such  an  inquiry, 
we  may  find  that  God  is,  after  all,  much  less  to  us  than 
we  have  been  used  to  think.  We  may  find  that  there  are 
certain  points  where  we  do  not  practically  recognize  His 
contact  with  our  lives,  where  perhaps  we  rather  avoid  con- 
tact widi  Him.  We  may  find  that  God  is  merely  assumed 
by  us  to  be  somewhere  back  of  our  lives,  in  the  dark,  in  a 
region  of  abstractions,  instead  of  being  a  realized  fact  /;/ 
our  lives  ;  that  God,  in  short,  is  practically,  little  more 
than  an  idea,  or  a  gigantic  phantom  looming  dimly  up 
through  the  mists  and  confusions  of  this  earthly  state. 

If  such  is  the  case,  then,  whatever  God  may  be  to  us. 
He  is  not  our  rest.  A  religion  in  which  God  is  not  the 
ri;st  of  the  soul,  in  which  God  is  not  the  fixed  foundation 
of  joy,  the  goal  of  hope,  the  prime  impulse  to  duty,  the 
supreme  source  of  comfort  and  wisdom,  is  a  contradiction 
of  terms.  "  Religion  is  the  maintenance  of  a  real  relation 
with  the  personal  God,  or  with  a  Divine  Person  really  in- 
carnate in  Jesus  Christ.  Accordingly  rehgion,  both  Jew- 
ish and  Christian,  is  described  as  a  covenant ;  it  is  a  bond 
or  understanding  between  the  nation  or  the  soul  and  God  ; 
or,  still  more,  it  is  personal  communion  with  God.  '  That 
which  we  have  seen  and  heard,'  says  John,  'declare  we 
10 


2i8  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

unto  you,  that  ye  also  may  have  communion  with  us ;  and 
truly  our  communion  is  with  the  Father  and  with  His  Son 
Jesus  Christ.'  " ' 

This  is  the  very  spirit  of  this  verse.  The  Psalmist  ex- 
horts his  soul  to  return  unto  its  rest ;  not  because  it  has 
heard  of  God,  or  has  seen  His  power  in  nature  ;  not  be- 
cause he  recognizes  Divine  order  in  the  universe,  not  be- 
cause his  poetical  feeling  is  kindled  by  the  thought  of 
Divine  majesty  and  glory,  but  because  he  has  had  per- 
so7ial  dealings  with  God.  "Ret^urn  unto  thy  rest,  O  my 
soul,  for  the  Lord  hath  dealt  bountifully  with  thee."  I 
supplicated  Him, -He  "heard"  my  supplication.  I  was 
brought  low.  He  "  helped  "  me  :  He  '•  delivered  my  soul 
from  death."  He  wiped  the  tears  from  my  eyes  and  gave 
His  angels  charge  to  keep  my  feet  from  falling.  There- 
fore, on  my  side,  1  too,  will  deal  with  Him.  I  will  "  call" 
upon  Him  :  I  will  "  rest"  in  Him  :  I  will  "walk  before  " 
Him  :  I  will  "  believe  "  in  Him  :  I  will  "  pay  my  vows  " 
to  Him. 

We  really  need  to  get  back  to  the  old  Hebrew  concep- 
tion of  God's  relation  to  man.  There,  everything  was 
pushed  back  to  rest  on  God.  Was  a  man  a  farmer  ?  The 
fruitfulness  of  his  fields  depended  upon  God.  "  Thou  vis- 
etest  the  earth  and  waterest  it.  Thou  preparest  them  ^ 
corn  when  Thou  hast  so  provided  for  it.  Thoji  waterest 
the  ridges  thereof,  abundantly  :  Thou  settlest  the  furrows 
thereof.  Thou  makest  it  soft  with  showers.  Thou  crovvn- 
est  the  year  with  Thy  goodness,"  "^  Was  he  a  warrior  ? 
God  was  the  Lord  of  Hosts.     His  defence  and  his  victory 

'  Liddon  :  "  Some  Elements  of  Religion."  '  Psalm  Ixv.  9-11. 


The  Gate  to  Rest.  219 

were  of  God.  "  Though  an  host  should  encamp  against 
me,  my  heart  shall  not  fear  ;  though  war  should  rise  up 
against  me,  in  this  will  I  be  confident.  The  Lord  is  my 
light  and  my  salvation."  '  Was  he  an  inquirer  about  his 
destiny  ?  He  left  it  in  God's  hand.  "  Thou  wilt  not 
leave  my  soul  in  the  realm  of  the  dead."  '  "I  shall  be  satis- 
fied with  Thy  likeness  when  I  awake."  '  And  everywhere 
where  we  put  natural  causes — wind,  rain,  lightning,  armies, 
statesmanship — the  Hebrew  put  God.  He  overleaped 
all  the  secondary  causes,  and  went  back  to  the  first  Cause ; 
whereas  our  modern  thought  is  prone  to  emphasize  the 
secondary  causes  and  sometimes  to  ignore  the  first  Cause 
altogether. 

I  say  we  need  to  get  back  to  this  old  Hebrew  direct- 
ness of  relation  between  God  and  man.  But  we  never 
can  do  so  through  any  conception  of  God  which  makes 
Him  less  than  z.  personal  Father  in  Heaven.  If  God  is 
merely  a  law,  a  settled  order,  we  may  as  well  give  up  all 
thought  of  finding  rest  in  that.  The  moment  the  personal 
God  is  taken  away,  and  an  abstract  law  substituted,  we 
ire  robbed  of  prayer,  of  worship,  of  spiritual  communion, 
of  heavenly  love,  of  faith,  of  thanksgiving, — of  the  whole 
range  of  moral  affections  and  acts  which  must  attach  to 
the  object  of  the  soul's  rest.  A  law  has  no  wisdom,  no 
foresight,  no  love.  You  cannot  pray  to  a  law  ;  you  can- 
not bow  at  the  shrine  of  gravitation,  nor  sing  praises  to 
cohesion.  Not  until  you  get  a  person  behind  the  law, 
can  you  look  up  to  the  heavens  for  justice  or  mercy,  or 
send  up  petitions  and  thanksgivings  from  earth. 

'  Psalm  xxvii.  r,  3.  '  Psalm  xvi.  10.  '  Psalm  xvii.  15. 


220  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

Now  let  us  look  at  three  questions  in  the  light  of  this 
thought  of  the  soul's  rest,  all  of  them  practical  questions 
which  every  thoughtful  man  asks.  "Whence  do  I  come  ?  " 
"How  shall  my  life  be  ordered?"  "Whither  am  I 
going  ?  "  No  soul  is  at  rest  until  it  can  answer  these 
three  questions ;  and  no  soul  will  ever  find  rest  until  it 
shall  have  found  its  answer  in  God. 

As  to  the  first  of  these  questions — "Whence  did  I 
come  ? "  Modern  thought  is  seeking  rest  for  itself,  not 
in  God,  but  in  scientific  theories  of  the  origin  of  man. 
We  have  no  fault  to  find  with  such  researches.  They  are 
right,  they  are  wholesome,  they  widen  the  range  of  our 
knowledge.  But  after  all,  a  human  soul  is  not  set  at  rest 
by  the  pursuit  or  by  the  discovery  of  a  theory,  not  even 
if  the  theory  should  prove  to  be  correct.  A  soul  is  a 
moral  being,  and  its  moral  cravings  are  not  satisfied  by 
solving  an  intellectual  problem  ;  and  the  question  of 
man's  origin  is  quite  as  much  a  moral  question  as  a  ques- 
tion of  natural  philosophy.  It  is  quite  as  important  to 
you  and  to  me  to  know  what  makes  will,  and  conscience, 
and  hope,  and  love,  as  to  know  what  makes  bone  and 
muscle.  It  makes  some  difference  to  us  as  moral  and 
intellectual  beings  whether  we  are  linked  to  heaven  or  to 
the  dust. 

Well,  then,  suppose  that  in  your  search  for  a  resting- 
point  in  the  matter  of  your  origin,  you  get  back  to  this. 
You  were  not  created  by  any  God.  A  mass  of  pulp 
called  protoplasm  produced  you  by  its  own  inherent  force. 
Will  that  set  you  at  rest  ?  Can  you,  a  being  with  reason 
and  affections  and  tastes  and  asi:)irations,  look  back  to 
that  mass  of  matter,  and  say,   "  Return  unto  thy  rest,  O 


The  Gate  to  Rest.  221 

my  soul :  be  content  that  this  gave  you  being  :  you  sprang 
from  matter?"  Is  there  a  child  who  would  not  ask  at 
once,  "  Who  made  the  matter  ?  Who  gave  it  power  to 
produce  you  ?  "  Was  it  not  the  most  natural  of  all  things 
for  the  heathen,  who  was  taught  the  old  Indian  fable  that 
the  world  stood  on  a  tortoise,  and  the  tortoise  on  a  ser- 
pent, to  go  below  tortoise  and  serpent,  and  ask  what  was 
under  both  ?  So,  if  you  are  forced  back  to  matter  for 
your  origin,  you  are  not  at  rest,  for  you  ask, — "What  is 
behind  matter  ?  "  And  if  you  are  convinced  that  there  is 
nothing,  I  ask  if  that  conviction  is  restful  ?  No,  no.  You 
are  a  child,  and  the  child's  instinct  is  strong  in  you. 
Something  deeper  than  reason,  that  something  which  even 
now,  old  man  that  you  are,  makes  your  heart  swell  and 
your  eye  moisten  every  time  you  look  at  your  father's 
picture,  sends  you  wandering  and  groping  through  God's 
universe  for  your  Father  and  Creator.  Rest !  Your  con- 
nection with  heaven  has  been  cut :  your  relationship  with 
the  clod  has  been  established:  you  have  been  severed 
from  all  those  moral  influences  which  the  thought  of  a 
personal  Creator  is  adapted  to  produce.  Of  what  use  is 
it  any  more  to  tell  you  to  remember  your  Creator?  To 
what  will  you  say,  "  I  will  praise  Thee,  for  I  am  fear- 
fully and  wonderfully  made  ?  "  '  To  that  little  mass  of 
matter?  Shall  you  be  warned  against  defiling  the  temple 
of  the  body,  and  be  told  that  the  temple  is  holy  because 
it  is  the  temple  oi^protoplasm  ? 

But  the  scientist  will  say,  "  We  are  seeking  truth  ;  and 
a  thing  is  not  necessarily  true  because  it  is  restful.    Truth 

'  Psalm  cxxxix.  14. 


222  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

is  better  than  rest."  I  grant  that.  If  I  must  choose  be- 
tween truth  and  rest,  let^  it  be  truth  at  all  hazards.  I 
know  of  no  one  who  makes  a  firmer  stand  for  that  princi- 
ple than  Christ.  He  will  have  no  peace  at  the  expense 
of  truth  :  He  went  to  the  cross  on  that  issue.  All  I  say 
now  is  that  the  scientist  does  not  give  you  anything  rest- 
ful, even  if  he  succeeds  in  proving  that  God  had  no  hand 
in  your  creation.  You  go  on  craving  a  Father  in  heaven 
just  the  same.  You  are  restless  as  ever,  no  less  restless 
than  the  child  who  knows  his  mother  is  in  her  grave,  but 
who,  nevertheless,  cries  for  her  unceasingly.  You  want 
the  truth,  but  may  not  your  filial  instinct  be  truthful  ? 
May  not  your  sense  of  sonship  be  a  sense  of  a  stupendous 
truth  ? 

To  go  on  now  to  the  second  great  question,  the  con- 
duct of  life.  How  shall  I  live  ?  How  make  the  most 
and  best  of  life  ?  What  guides  shall  I  follow  ?  Here 
again  we  find  a  point  of  rest  only  in  a  personal  God,  a 
God  of  providence,  who  interferes,  (I  am  not  afraid  of 
the  term)  in  our  affairs.  You  may  prove,  if  you  can,  that 
your  life  moves  on  under  the  guidance  of  mere,  settled, 
mechanical  order.  That  conclusion  will  not  give  you 
rest.  You  have  met  with  some  great  misfortune,  let  us 
say.  You  sit  down  and  go  over  the  history  of  years  in 
detail,  and  call  up  every  event,  and  piece  all  together,  and 
see  how  one  joins  itself  to  the  other,  and  think  you  know 
how  it  all  came  about.  Is  there  any  rest  in  that  ?  Sup- 
pose you  do  know  just  how  you  lost  your  fortune,  just 
how  you  were  bereaved  of  your  children,  just  by  what 
succession  of  causes  your  business  was  ruined  : — what 
ilien  ?     Does  the  wounded   man   smart  any  the   less   be^ 


7 he  Gate  to  Rest,  223 

cause  he  knows  who  wounded  him  and  with  what  kind  of 
a  weapon  it  was  done  ?  Suppose  you  satisf)'  yourself 
that  you  are  swept  along  in  the  orbit  of  natural  law,  with 
no  God  at  the  centre.  Is  that  conclusion  restful  ?  Why 
there  is  no  thought  more  terrible  or  more  harrowing  than 
that  thought  of  material  law  without  God.  Have  you 
ever  sounded  the  depth  of  meaning  that  lies  in  Paul  s 
words  to  the  Ephesians,  where  he  is  describing  their 
moral  condition  before  they  believed  on  Christ,  and  ends 
the  description  with  "  without  God  in  the  world  ?  "  '  If 
you  look  at  that  word  "  world,"  you  find  that  it  is  the 
word  whidi  originally  meant  "  order ; "  and  which  the 
Greeks  transferred  to  the  universe  as  indicating  its  har- 
mony and  order.  The  succession  of  the  words  is  startling  ; 
"  Godless  "  amid  the  great  settled  order  of  the  universe. 
Well  might  he  add  "  having  no  hope."  There  is  some- 
thing awful,  cruel,  in  the  inexorableness  of  natural  law,  if 
one  cannot  discern  a  Father  back  of  it.  Niagara  leaves 
on  the  mind  an  impression  of  terror  which  sometimes 
well  nigh  swallows  up  the  sense  of  its  beauty,  because  of 
this  suggestion  of  pitiless,  remorseless  power.  To  stand 
and  see  that  current  moving  straight  towards  the  preci- 
pice, with  its  tremendous  volume,  its  resistless  sweep, 
and  then  to  think  of  it  as  mere  brute  force,  obeying  a 
fixed  law,  no  pity  in  that  boiling  flood,  compelled  by  the 
very  law  of  its  being  to  destroy  you  if  you  fall  into  its 
grasp — that  is  a  picture  of  the  order  of  the  world  without 
God.  There  is  no  rest  in  such  a  picture.  If  it  be  all 
true — God  forbid  it  should  be — but  if  it  be  true  that  we 

'  Ephesians  ii.  12. 


224  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

f-.- 
are  without  God  in  the  world,  the  orderly  world  of  mat- 
ter, which  turns  not  one  jot  from  its  course  because  your 
heart  aches,  or  my  dearest  treasures  lie  in  its  track,  the 
materialist  is  welcome  to  all  the  consolation  and  rest  he 
can  get  out  of  the  truth.  So  of  the  world  of  society.  If 
this  world  of  men  which  we  see  and  of  which  we  are  a 
part,  with  all  its  clashing  and  contradiction,  its  triumph 
of  evil  and  its  struggle  of  good,  is  uncontrolled  by  a 
Supreme  Will,  if  men  like  grains  of  sand,  merely  fly  be- 
fore the  wind  that  drives  them  against  the  rocks  and 
against  each  other,  if  change,  and  sickness,  and  ruin,  and 
death  come  just  as  the  water  shoots  the  precipice,  just  as 
two  and  two  make  four, — it  is  but  mockery  to  point  our 
souls  to  such  a  conception  of  life  and  say,  "  Return  unto 
thy  rest,  O  my  soul."  We  can  obtain  a  calm,  restful  out- 
look upon  life,  a  tranquil,  cheerful  participation  in  life, 
only  as  we  get  back  to  God.  We  find  these  only  when 
Christ  leads  us  as  he  led  the  disciples  of  old  to  the  mar- 
ket, and  points  to  the  little  dead  sparrow,  and  says — "  Your 
Father  marked  its  fall ;  fear  not,  ye  are  of  more  value 
than  many  sparrows."  '  We  shall  not  be  frightened  at  a 
mystery,  provided  we  know  God  is  behind  it.  We  can  sit 
patiently  and  cheerfully  before  closed  doors  if  we  know 
that  God  is  within.  We  can  look  out  tranquilly  upon 
the  confusion  around  us,  yea,  feel  its  terrible  whirl  undis- 
mayed, while  we  feel  the  Rock  of  Ages  under  our  feet, 
and  know  that  all  things  work  together  for  good  to  them 
that  love  God.  So  we  will  return  unto  our  rest.  We  will 
look  out  upon  the  graves  of  our  dead,  and  assure  our- 

'  Matthew  x.  29,  31. 


The  Gate  to  Rest.  225 

selves  that  they  are  not  mere  pitfalls  into  which  our  be- 
loved have  helplessly  stumbled  under  a  push  from  a  blind 
fate,  but  resting-places  where  infinite  tenderness  has  laid 
them,  and  where  fatherly  care  watches  over  their  sleep. 
We  are  sick,  and  we  know  why  perhaps,  but  our  rest  is 
in  going  back  to  a  higher  "  why,"  in  knowing  that  there 
is  a  reason  for  our  trial  in  the  infinite  mind,  looking  to- 
ward our  growth  in  purity  and  in  power.  We  will  rejoice 
in  law,  but  chiefly  as  it  is  the  outcome  of  fatherhood.  The 
statutes  which  delight  us  shall  rejoice  our  hearts  because 
they  are  the  Lord's.' 

And,  once  more,  the  soul  finds  no  rest  as  regards  the 
question  of  destiny,  until  it  finds  it  in  God.  Ah,  how  lit- 
tle, comparatively,  we  know  of  the  world  to  come,  and 
how  little  rest  we  are  likely  to  get  by  constructing  01 
studying  theories  about  it.  Take  heaven,  for  instance, 
and  begin  to  inquire  where  heaven  is,  and  what  heaven  is, 
and  to  what  conditions  it  is  going  to  introduce  us,  and  in- 
stead of  finding  rest,  we  shall  find  ourselves  in  a  mist  of 
endless  speculation,  and  shall  come  back  from  our  re- 
searches no  wiser  than  we  went.  Whatever  restful  thought 
of  heaven  we  have,  whatever  knowledge  of  its  conditions 
we  have,  comes  entirely  from  the  moral  quality  of  heaven, 
and  therefore  from  the  thought  of  God  ;  for,  take  out  God 
from  the  universe,  and  no  determinate  moral  quality  is 
left  anywhere,  in  heaven  or  in  earth.  Heaven  is  heaven 
to  us  because  God  is  there ;  because  God's  law  rules 
there  absolutely ;  because  its  happiness  is  the  happiness 
of  perfect  moral  order.     Take  the  Father  out  of  it,  and 


V.  '  Psalm  xix,  8. 


226  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Cotmtry. 

you  liave  an  eternal  waste,  unthrilled  by  a  single  pulsation 
of  love  or  sympathy  or  praise.  And,  as  respects  that  terri- 
ble subject  of  retribution,  that  subject  Avhich  grows  darker 
and  darker  the  more  it  is  studied,  we  shall  get  little  rest 
out  of  theories.  We  shall  get  little  satisfaction  in  efforts 
to  reconcile  our  sympathies  with  our  convictions  of  divine 
justice.  After  we  shall  have  done  our  best,  we  shall  still 
be  burdened,  and  coaupelled  to  go  back  for  rest  to  the  sim- 
ple thought  of  God  ;  to  go^back  in  faith,  not  with  knowl 
edge,  and  to  base  our  conviction  of  the  rightness  and  har 
mony  of  all  the  developments  of  the  coming  world  in  every 
moral  sphere,  upon  the  simple  truth  that  God  doeth  all 
things  well.  It  was  well  said  by  a  poet  whom  our  coun- 
trymen have  learned  to  revere  :  "  I  do  believe  that  the 
Divine  love  and  compassion  follow  us  in  all  worlds,  and 
that  the  Heavenly  Father  will  do  the  best  that  is  possible 
for  every  creature  He  has  made.  What  that  will  be  must 
be  left  to  His  infinite  wisdom  and  goodness."  ' 

That  this  point  of  rest  may  be  clearly,  sharply  defined 
to  us,  God  presents  himself  in  Christ  as  the  Soul's  rest. 
In  Christ  He  stands,  saying  to  a  restless  world,  "  Come 
unto  me  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will 
give  you  rest."  ^  He  has  not  meant  that  the  soul's  rest 
should  be  hidden  away  under  figures  and  metaphors,  with- 
drawn afar  off  in  the  vague  splendor  of  the  heavens.  The 
incarnate  Rest  comes  down  to  man.  The  God  of  rest 
becomes  man,  and  the  life  and  the  words  of  the  Son  of 
Man  are  a  thousandfold  echo  of  the  words,  "  Return  unto 
thy  rest,  O  my  soul." 

•  Whittier.  =  Matthe\v  xi.  28.  J? 


The  Gate  to  Rest.  227 

Jesus  sets  forth  an  economy  of  salvation,  which  points 
back  of  itself  to  a  condition  of  lost  sonship,  and  so  tells 
us  we  are  by  creation  sons  of  God,  while  it  is  instinct  with 
the  promise  to  restore  us  to  that  forfeited  sonship.  Are 
we  not  reminded  by  Him  of  our  high  lineage,  as  he 
teaches  us  to  say  "  Our  Father  "?  as  he  says,  "  He  that  hath 
seen  Me  hath  seen  the  Father  "  ?  ' 

Do  we  ask  concerning  the  basis,  the  order,  the  conduci 
of  our  life  ?  Again  Christ  answers  us,  as  his  life  reminds 
us  of  one  who  ever  rested  in  God  and  walked  with  God  ; 
who,  when  forsaken  by  all,  could  say,  "  I  am  not  alone, 
for  the  Father  is  with  me ;  "  ^  a  life  which  took  all  its  im- 
pulses from  God,  and  the  motto  of  which  was,  "  My  meat 
is  to  do  the  will  of  Him  that  sent  fee,  and  to  finish  His 
work."  ' 

And  as  to  destiny,  even  now  the  Savior's  words  come 
back  to  us  from  the  upper  chamber,  "  Until  the  day  when 
I  drink  it  new  with  you  in  My  father's  kingdom."*  "  In 
my  father's  house  are  many  mansions,  I  go  to  prepare  a 
place  for  you,  and  I  will  come  again  and  receive  you  un- 
to Myself,  that  where  I  am,  there  ye  may  be  also."  *  He 
needed  to  say  nothing  more.  That  is  Christ's  description 
of  heaven: — "Where  I  am  ;"  a  description  which  seems 
meagre  and  vague  to  careless  thought  and  to  shallow  ex- 
perience, but  which  grows  in  brightness  and  beauty  and 
suggestiveness,  as  we  penetrate  deeper  into  the  life  of 
faith,  and  know  more  of  Him  whom  to  know  aright  is 
life  eternal. 

'  John  xiv.  9.  '  John  iv.  34. 

'  John  xvi.  32.  *  Matthew  xxvi.  29. 

'  John  xiv.  23. 


THE   GATE   TO   THE   HERI- 
TAGE. 


PSALM   CXIX. 

(in)  "Thy  testimonies  have  I  taken  as  an  heritage  for- 
ever ; 
For  they  are  the  rejoicing  of  my  heart." 


XIV. 

THE  GATE  TO  THE  HERITAGE. 

A  HERITAGE  is  sonietliing  which  appeals  to  every  man.  > 
There  never  yet  was  a  man  who  was  not  deeply  interested 
in  the  reading  of  his  father's  will.     There  never  was  a  son 
who  did  not  walk  over  his  father's  estate  with  the  thought 
— these  acres  will  one  day  be  mine. 

Thus,  by  establishing  a  parallel  between  an  earthly  and 
a  heavenly  heritage,  Inspiration  seeks  to  draw  the  thought 
from  the  material  to  the  spiritual ;  to  set  it  instituting 
comparisons,  and  thus  to  bring  home  to  it  the  transcen- 
dent superiority  of  the  divine  heritage  over  the  world's 
lands  and  gold. 

A  testimony  is  a  7vitness.  By  the  testimonies  of  God 
we  mean,  all  those  things  by  which  He  bears  witness  to  — i 
His  own  character  and  perfections.  Thus  His  testimo- 
nies include  the  evidences  of  His  wisdom  and  power  and 
love  in  nature  ;  the  traces  of  His  purpose  and  work  in 
human  history,  and  His  express  declarations  concerning 
Himself  in  His  written  Word. 

This  vast  and  various  range  of  testimonies  is  the  heri- 
tage of  His  children. 

An  inheritance  carries  with  it  two  sets  of  suggestions  : 
the  one  having  reference  to  the  past,  and  the  other  to  the    r 
future.     We  will  take  these  two  classes  of  suggestions,  and 


232  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

try  to  find  their  parallels  in  the  heritage  of  God's  test^ 
monies. 

First  then,  an  inheritance  suggests  the  past.  The  heir, 
as  he  looks  at  the  bundles  of  deeds  and  certificates,  as  he 
inspects  the  various  tenements,  and  walks  abroad  over  the 
acres  of  pasture  and  forest,  or  examines  the  vast  mining  or 
manufacturing  establishments,  sees  in  these  the  results  of  a 
long  and  laborious  past.  These  things  did  not  come  into 
his  parent's  hand  in  a  night.  They  represent  careful  plan- 
ning, slow  and  gradual  accumulation,  widening  of  expe- 
rience, growth  of  power.  They  represent  toil  and  conflict 
and  suffering.  They  tell  too  of  forecast,  which,  far  back 
in  the  years  before  the  heir  was  born,  was  planning  and 
working  towards  the  rich  result  which  is  now  his  own. 
With  this,  too,  come  tenderer  and  nobler  thoughts.  There 
is  a  sense  of  honest  pride  in  the  inheritance,  as  it  bears  the 
mark  of  character,  of  the  father's  energy,  integrity,  wisdom, 
love  for  his  children,  and  noble  uses  of  power.  Death 
sets  its  seal  upon  all,  and  makes  even  the  most  common 
material  thing  an  awakener  of  the  love  which  lies  buried 
in  a  father's  tomb. 

In  like  manner  the  testimonies  of  God  point  us  back 
of  themselves.  A  mountain  with  its  crags  and  peaks  and 
forests  may  be  a  picturesque  object  to  the  eye,  or  a 
good  stand-point  for  an  outlook  :  but  it  will  have  a,  far 
deeper  interest  for  us  if  we  know  with  what  throes  the 
strata  piled  themselves  up,  what  powers  of  the  air  cut  the 
peaks  into  those  fantastic  shapes,  if  we  can  read  the  stories 
of  earthquake  and  fire  and  deluge  and  iceberg  written 
upon  those  rocks.  So,  it  is  not  enough  that  we  receive 
and  enjoy  the  testimonies  of  God.     We  do  not  truly  in- 


TJie  Gate  to  the  Heritage.  233 

herit  them  if  we  fail  to  study  them.     Their  value  to  us  lies 
largely  in  their  history. 

We  shall,  perhaps,  deal  with  the  'subject  more  easily, 
if  we  confine  ourselves  to  God's  testimonies  as  represented 
by  the  Bible.  For,  while  it  is  true  that  these  testimonies 
ore  to  be  found  both  in  nature  and  in  the  whole  history 
of  humanity,  yet  it  is  also  true  that  the  J3ible  gathers  into 
itself  and  represents  .all  these  classes  of  testimony,  and, 
W'luit  is  most  important,  interprets  them  in  the  common 
light  of  one  ruling  idea — the  saving  purpose  of  God.  A 
great  deal  of  discussion,  and  a  great  many  charges  of 
bigotry  and  narrowness  might  be  saved  if  it  were  clearly 
a|)preciated  that  the  Bible  is  God's  testimony,  not  because 
it  contains  the  only  testimony  to  God,  but  because  it  is 
.  the  key  to  all  testimony  from  whatever  quarter.  A  great 
mass  of  the  heritage  of  God's  testimony  lies  outside  of 
Bible  times  and  in  regions  not  distinctively  religious  :  but 
the  Bible  alone  teaches  us  how  to  read  this  testimony,  or 
rather  teaches  us  the  great  principle  on  which  it  should 
be  read.  It  is  the  schedule  according  to  which  the  vari- 
ous items  of  the  heritage  are  to  be  classed  :  and  Bible 
history  is  valuable,  therefore,  not  because  it  is  the  only 
significant  history  in  respect  of  morals  and  religion,  but 
because  in  it,  we  are  distinctly  pointed  to  Goifs  move- 
ment ;  because  we  are  there  shown  a  history  developing 
along  lines  of  providence.  There,  for  example,  is  the 
history  of  Abraham.  Take  the  naked  historic  facts,  and 
the  historian  might  say, — "  it  is  only  the  record  of  the 
migration  of  an  oriental  tribe  or  family,  of  the  same'class 
with  the  movement  of  the  Huns  upon  Western  Europe,  or 
of  the  Tartars  upon  Russia."     But  ilijijust  at  this  point  thai 


234  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

the  Bible  guards  us.  It  says  that  Abraham's  movement 
means  more  than  this.  It  shows  us  rifetonly  that  Abraham 
had  an  outlook  into  the  future,  but  that  it  was  a  moral  out. 
look;  that  a  divine  call  impelled  him  ;  and  that  his  going 
out  from  his  country  and  kindred  was  the  first  step  of  a 
process  which  culminated  in  the  Hebrew  civilization. ' 
As  we  trace  the  movement  through  Isaac  and  Jacob, 
Joseph  and  Pharaoh,  Moses  and  Egypt  and  the  Desert 
and  Canaan,  we  are  never  suffered  to  lose  sight  of*  the 
fact  that  this  story  is  a  testimony  to  God  :  to  His  power 
and  love  and  foresight.  In  the  romance  of  Bethel,  and  of 
the  sale  of  Joseph,  and  of  the  hiding  and  finding  of  Moses, 
we  are  ever  confronted  with  the  fact, — this  is  God's  work. 
Thus  this  testimony  has  a  double  purpose  and  value.  It 
is  not  only  the  record  of  God's  work  and  purpose  in  that  , 
particular  history,  but  it  teaches  us  how  to  look  at  all 
history.  When  you  turn  from  your  Bible  to  Gibbon,  for 
instance,  and  begin  to  see  the  rude  northern  nations  com- 
ing to  the  front,  and  the  empire  divided,  and  the  seat  of 
dominion  shifted  to  the  East,  you  are  not  to  think  that 
you  leave  God  behind  :  you  are  to  search  equally  for 
God's  intent,  and  to  read  this  history  equally  with  the 
other  in  that  light.  The  barbarians  meant  something 
when  they  moved  upon  Rome,  "but  God  meant  something 
too.  Thus  the  Bible  itself,  instead  of  narrowing  our 
heritage  of  testimonies  to  God,  teaches  us  how  large 
it  is.  • 

If  we  sit  down  with  the  Apostle's  words,  "  all  things 

'  This  is   admirably  developed  in   the   first  chapter  of  Mczley'f 
*'  Ruling  Ideas  of  the  Early  Ages." 


The  Gate  to  the  Heritage.  235 

are  yours,"  '  and  begin  to  examine  our  heritage,  we  shall 
be  led  irresistibly  back  to  the  past.  For  instance,  what  a 
heritage  oi years  we  shall  find  wrapped  up  in  that  sentence  ; 
years  that  have  yielded  their  rich  result  to  the  present. 
How  slowly  God  has  suffered  our  heritage  of  experience 
and  tradition  and  example  to  accumulate  :  how  prodigal 
He  has  been  of  time.  Take  the  history  of  Israel  alone. 
God  might  have  called  into  being  by  a  word  a  nation 
thoroughly  equipped  with  all  the  conditions  of  civilizationj 
but  he  preferred  to  let  it  grow,  and  it  grew  leisurely 
enough.  No  haste  while  Jacob  was  pining  in  loneliness, 
and  Joseph  rising  to  honor  in  the  Egyptian  court.  No 
haste,  while  Moses  was  receiving  his  careful  training  in 
the  Egyptian  schools,  and  maturing  in  the  solitudes  of 
Horeb.  No  haste  to  tide  over  those  weary  years  of 
Israel's  wandering  in  the  wilderness.  No  haste  through 
that  strange,  wild  period  of  ferment,  which  threw  to 
the  surface  Deborah  and  Gideon  and  Sampson,  when 
there  was  no  king  in  Israel  and  every  man  did  that 
which  was  right  in  his  own  eyes.  No  haste  in  the  long 
succession  of  degenerate  kings  at  Samaria  and  Jeru- 
salem. No  haste  in  the  weary  years  beside  the  willows 
of  Babylon,  where,  at  last,  Israel  learned  that  the  Lord  is 
one  God. 

And,  in  the  growth  of  these  long,  weary  centuries,  what   'v^ 
a  rich  variety  of  testimonies  God  has  accumulated.     How 
many  laws  of  cotiduci,  for  instance,  have  taken  shape  in 
the  various  situations  in  which  the  men  of  the  Bible  his- 
tory have  been  placed  ;  how  many  shining  examples  of 

'  I  Corinthians  ill.  21. 


236  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

distinct  virtues  ;  patience  in  Job,  faith  in  Abraham,  fideL 
ity  in  Moses,  brave  hopefulness  in  Caleb,  zeal  in  Elijah, 
affectionateness  in  John,  earnestness  in  Peter  : — what  won- 
derful varieties  of  character,  illustrated  in  Sampson,  Sam 
uel,  Elisha,  Balaam,  Isaiah,  Paul  :  what  a  variety  of  meth- 
ods of  teaching  ;  the  direct  communications  of  God  to 
Abraham  and  Jacob,  the  symbolic  lessons  of  the  Levitical 
code,  the  burning  utterances  of  prophecy,  the  inspired  mel- 
ody of  the  Psalms,  the  Gospel,  the  Epistle,  the  Apocalypse. 
And  the  Bible  gives  unity  to  this  whole  mass  of  testimony, 
ranges  it  all  round  the  one  thought  of  God,  makes  all  its 
variety  tell  of  God's  teaching,  God's  power,  God's  pur- 
pose, God's  love,  God's  hatred  of  sin.  Thus  it  is  summed 
up  in  the  introduction  to  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  : 
**  God,  who  at  sundry  times,  and  in  divers  manners  spake 
unto  the  fathers  by  the  prophets,  hath  in  these  last  days 
spoken  unto  us  by  His  Son."  Abraham  and  Christ,  though 
separated  by  such  long  time,  though  speaking  in  such 
diverse  manners,  yet  speak  one  voice,  and  are  parts  of 
one  heritage  of  testimony. 

Moreover,  just  as  the  thought  that  a  father  has  been  ac- 
cumulating property  with  direct  reference  to  his  children's 
enjoyment  and  comfort,  lends  a  peculiar  interest  to  the  in- 
heritance in  their  eyes,  so  the  thought  that  God  has,  through 
all  the  past,  bfeen  accumulating  this  mass  of  testimony  for 
our  use,  gives  a  wonderful  interest  to  the  Bible.  Paul 
brings  out  this  thought  in  the  tenth  chapter  of  first  Corin- 
thians, where  he  touches  upon  certam  points  in  the  history 
of  Israel,  and  sums  tip  the  whole  with  the  words,  "  Now 
all  these  things  happened  unto  them  for  ensamples  ;  and 
they  are  written  for  our  admonition  upon  whom  the  ends 


The  Gate  to  the  Heritage,  237 

of  the  world  are  come  :  "  '  so  that,  in  counting  our  heri- 
tage we  must  not,  as  some  are  too  ready  to  do,  cast  aside 
the  past.  The  old,  musty  parchment,  which  the  enthusi- 
astic young  heir  might  be  tempted  to  throw  into  the  fire, 
may  be  the  title  deed  to  the  best  of  his  estate.  At  any 
rate,  our  heritage  in  God's  testimonies  is  one,  and  we  can- 
not safely  divide  it.  Just  as  an  old  mortgage  or  lease  may 
explain  or  confirm  a  later  instrument,  so  the  Old  Testa- 
ment is  necessary  to  the  New.  God  does  not  speak  to 
Israel  as  he  docs  to  Paul,  nor  to  Elijah  as  to  John  ;  but  we 
need  Moses  to  understand  Paul,  and  Paul  to  understand 
Moses,  and  we  do  not  truly  measure  Elijah,  until  we  see 
him  through  the  gospel  of  love  as  given  by  the  fourth 
Evangelist.  Those  who,  in  their  fancied  zeal  for  Christ 
and  for  His  gospel,  cast  contempt  on  the  Old  Testament, 
and  exclude  it  from  their  closets  and  family  altars,  need  to 
be  reminded  that  they  despise  what  Christ  himself  honored 
and  commended.  It  was  of  these  Old  Testament  scrip- 
tures that  Jesus  said  "they  are  they  which  testify  of  me."  * 

And,  once-  more,  it  is  always  an  affecting  thought  to  an 
aftectionate  son,  that  his  father's  estate  was  accumulated 
with  toil,  and  self-denial  and  suffering.  It  comes  almost 
with  the  power  of  a  reproach  to  his  sensitive  heart,  that 
he  is  to  inherit  in  comfort  and  tranquility  that  which  re- 
calls so  much  struggle  and  pain  and  anxious  thought. 

And  this  fact  attaches  in  a  peculiar  sense  to  God's  her- 
itage of  testimony.  Beyond  any  other  book,  the  Bible  has 
evolved  itself  out  of  sorrow.  That  is  the  reason  why  it 
responds  to  the  instincts  of  the  race  as  no  other  book 

'  I  Corinthians  X.  w.  '  John  v.  39. 


238  Gates  info  the  Psalm  Country. 

does  or  can.  It  is  the  history  of  humanity,  and  of  sinful 
humanity  ;  and  sinful  humanity  must  needs  be  sorrowful. 
As,  when  you  examine  that  intensely  brilliant  light  which 
now  and  then  illumines  sections  of  our  streets,  you  find 
behind  it  nothing  but  a  lump  of  common  lime,  played  up- 
on by  a  flame  of  different  gases, — so  the  Bible  is  the  rec- 
ord of  our  crude  humanity  passing  under  the  various 
forces  of  God's  dlsciphne  and  punishment ;  and  for  that 
very  reason  is  "  a  lamp  to  our  feet,  and  a  light  unto  our 
path."  *  Jesus  Himself,  the  focal  point  of  the  Bible,  who 
gathers  up  all  its  scattered  rays  into  Himself,  and  thus  be- 
comes the  "  light  of  the  world," — Jesus  Himself  was  "  a 
man  of  sorrows,"  and,  in  that  fact,  becomes  His  people's 
light  and  guide  ;  "for  it  became  Him  for  whom  are  all 
things  and  by  whom  are  all  things,  in  bringing  many  sons 
unto  glory,  to  make  the  captain  of  their  salvation  perfect 
through  sufferings."^  And  Christ,  in  this  as  in  other 
things,  represents  the  race  :  and  the  Bible,  therefore,  while 
it  brings  out  this  fact  respecting  Christ,  is  also  the  ex- 
pression of  the  same  fact  in  the  history  of  humanity,  the 
fact  that  it  makes  no  approach  to  perfection  save  through 
suffering.  Take  the  single  thought  of  the  unity  of  God, 
so  familiar  to  us  :  yet  through  what  a  long  and  terrible  pro- 
cess of  discipline,  through  what  a  series  of  disasters  and 
punishments,  that  thought  was  finally  lodged  in  the  deep- 
est convictions  of  the  Jewish  race.  Or  look  at  the  war 
and  blood  and  cruelty  through  which  the  race  pushed  its 
way  up  from  its  low,  crude  moral  ideals  to  a  higher  plane 
of  life.     Consider    the    individual  trials    of  God's    repre- 

'  Psalm  cxix.  105.  ■'  Hebrews  ii.  10. 


The  Gate  to  the  Heritage.  239 

sentative  men.  Go  clown  the  portrait  gallery  of  God's 
saints  from  Abraham  onwards,  and  where  do  you  find  a 
face  that  is  not  written  over  with  the  lines  of  sorrow  and 
struggle?  And  when  at  last  you  stop  before  the  Leadei 
of  "the  cloud  of  witnesses,"'  behold  "His  visage  so 
marred  more  than  any  man,  and  his  form  more  than  tlie 
sons  of  men." '  Or  take  the  Bible  as  a  book.  What  a 
fight  it  has  had  for  its  position.  What  book  ever  underwent 
such  a  terrible  sifting  ?  How  many  have  gone  to  the 
stake  and  to  the  block  for  its  sake ;  in  how  many  secret 
corners  has  it  been  hidden  from  the  race  of  persecutors, 
and  how  often  read  by  stealth  in  dens  and  caves  of  the 
earth.  What  toil  and  study  in  translating  and  explaining 
it :  how  many  risks  and  sacrifices  of  life  and  comfort  and 
safety  are  represented  in  that  collection  of  translations 
which  may  be  seen  at  the  rooms  of  the  American  Bible 
Society.  And  these  things  are  only  a  part.  The  heri- 
tage of  God's  testimony  in  the  Word  is  a  veritable  battle- 
ground, its  greenest  and  most  fruitful  fields  moistened 
with  blood,  and  covering  the  relics  of  the  slain. 

But  let  us  look  now  at  this  heritage  as  it  stands  related 
to  the  future.  From  the  associations  and  memories  of  the 
past,  the  heir  turns  to  study  what  capacity  for  develop- 
ment there  is  in  the  estate  ;  to  examine  the  investments 
and  to  see  hovv  they  promise.  He  may  be  disappointed ;  he 
may  find  that  a  good  part  of  the  estate  has  become  un- 
productive, and  can  never  be  made  to  yield  what  it  did  in 
his  father's  time,  or  he  may  find  that  it  contains  sources 
of  wealth  of  which  his  father  never  dreamed. 

'  Hebrews  xii.  1,2.  '  Isaiah  lii.  14, 


240  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

The  Psalmist,  in  thus  inspecting  the  heritage  of  God's 
testimonies,  is  evidently  well  satisfied  with  the  prospect, 
though  he  takes  the  longest  possible  outlook  :  "Thy  tes- 
timonies  have  I  taken  as  an  heritage  forever."  And  we 
may  safely  share  his  satisfaction.  The  man  who  chooses 
the  Word  of  God  as  his  moral  inheritance,  may  do  so  in 
full  confidence  that  it  will  amply  meet  the  demands  of  his 
whole  future,  and  of  the  whole  future  of  his  race. 

No  one  can  read  the  Bible  long  without  seeing  that  it  is 
prophetic  ;  not  only  in  the  sense  of  occasionally  predict- 
ing the  future,  but  in  that  its  facts  imply  other  facts  to  fol- 
low ;  present  sockets,  into  which  future  facts  are  to  fit.  Its 
utterances  are  folded  in  upon  themselves  like  a  flower. 
You  see  certain  petals  already  exposed  to  the  light ;  but 
you  see  within  the  circle  of  these  something  more  which  is 
to  unfold  in  its  season.  The  whole  book  is  full  of  a  sense 
of  anticipation  :  the  foundations  it  lays  are  for  a  large  su- 
perstructure :  the  plans  it  foreshadows  require  an  immense 
future  for  their  development.  If  you  should  come,  a 
stranger  to  this  city,  and  should  be  taken  to  the  top  of  one 
of  the  piers  of  the  East  River  bridge  on  a  misty  morning, 
when  you  could  not  see  whether  the  two  shores  were  a 
half  mile  or  ten  miles  apart, — if  you  could  only  measure  a 
short  section  of  the  arc  formed  by  one  of  the  cables,  you 
could  easily  calculate  the  distance  from  shore  to  shore. 
So,  if  you  start  from  the  Old  Testament  pier  of  God's 
Word,  you  do  not  go  far  without  perceiving  that  that  Word 
has  a  mighty  span,  a  reach  into  the  infinite  future.  The 
Bible  never  betrays  anywhere  the  consciousness  that  the 
remotest  future  will  make  it  superfluous.  It  plainly  asserts 
the  contrary.     "  Heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away,  but 


The  Gate  to  the  Heritage.  241 

my  words  shall  not  pass  away."  '  Whatever  we  may  think 
of  such  claims,  they  are  boldly  preferred  ;  and  if  we  accept 
the  history  of  the  Bible  we  must  accept  its  prophecy,  for 
the  history  and  the  prophecy  are  inseparably  intertwined. 
The  history  itself  is  instinct  with  prophecy.  You  cannot 
read  Abraham's  history  for  five  minutes  without  perceiving 
that  God  is  working  through  him  towards  a  large  destiny : 
and  tiie  fact  is  all  the  more  singular  as  you  look  at  the 
society  of  Abraham's  time,  and  see  that  it  has  no  outlook 
into  the  future,  little  idea  that  things  will  ever  be  different 
from  what  they  are  in  its  own  day.  But  Abraham's  vision 
takes  in  a  horizon  which  includes  all  the  nations  of  the 
earth.  All  nations  are  to  be  blessed  in  him,  in  a  richer 
future.  This  thought  is  the  main-spring  of  his  history  ; 
and,  as  has  been  justly  observed,  Christ  himself  "  has  sin- 
gled out  this  prophetic  look  of  Abraham  as  something  un- 
exampled in  clearness,  certainty  and  far-reaching  extent. 
'  Your  father  Abraham  rejoiced  to  see  My  day  ;  and  he 
saw  it  and  was  glad.'  "  "  Cbrist  himself  tells  his  disciples 
that  His  own  work  is  only  a  beginning,^  and  accordingly 
we  see  that  the  whole  New  Testament  history  from  His 
departure  onward  is  a  growth  toward  a  still  remoter  future  ; 
and  when  we  have  come  to  the  end  of  the  Epistles,  the 
Apocalypse  begins  to  open  to  us,  indistinctly  indeed,  a 
vision  of  a  heavenly  consummation  in  a  community  based 
and  ordered  upon  the  principles  laid  down  in  the  Bible  ; 
the  dream  of  a  perfect  civilization  realized  in  the  city  of 


'  Matthew  xxiv.  35. 

'  Mozley,  '*  Ruling  Ideas  of  the  Early  Ages."     John  viii,  56. 
*  Jolm  xvi.  12-14. 
II 


242  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

God  coming  down  out  of  Heaven.'  Thus  the  great  prin- 
ciples of  truth  to  which  the  word  of  God  bears  testimony 
at  the  beginning,  are  laid  down  with  the  understanding 
that  they  will  equally  fit  into  the  latest,  perfect  order  of 
things.  The  truth  which  is  sounded  at  the  vtxy  opening 
of  Scripture,  "  God  reigns,"  will  be  the  central,  confessed 
truth  of  the  new  heaven  and  the  new  earth  in  which  shall 
dwell  righteousness  ;  and  the  righteousness  toward  which 
God  appears,  in  the  twilight  of  early  Scripture,  already 
lifting  the  race  of  man  in  all  its  crudeness  and  hardness, 
will  be  the  righteousness  which  shall  fill  the  redeemed 
universe  with  joy  and  praise. 

Coming  down  from  these  broader  conceptions  to  the 
individual,  we  find  in  these  facts  a  pungent  caution  against 
the  tendency  to  regard  the  Bible  as  an  exploded  and 
effete  production.  Facts  show  that  the  Bible  is  quite  as 
necessary  to  the  present  age  as  it  was  to  any  past  age. 
Certain  human  theories  about  it  may  indeed  have  been 
exploded  \  certain  interpretations  of  it  may  quite  reason- 
ably have  been  left  behind  ;  but  the  significant  fact  is  that 
in  shaking  itself  clear  from  these,  the  Bible  looms  up 
larger  than  before.  In  clearing  certain  parts  of  the  heri- 
tage of  the  weeds  which  men's  bigotry  or  carelessness  has 
suftered  to  grow  there,  we  find  how  rich  the  soil  is  for 
nobler  growths.  Society,  so  far  from  finding  the  Bible 
out  of  sympathy  with  the  rapid  growth  and  enterprise  and 
bold  thinking  of  the  present,  finds  that  the  Bible  has  an- 
ticipated these.     The  young  man  who  goes  down  into  life 

'  This  whole  line  of  thought  is  well  worked  out  in  Bernard's  "  Prog- 
ress of  Doctrine  in  the  New  Testament." 


The  Gate  to  the  Heritage.  243 

with  his  Bible  in  his  hand  and  in  his  heart  need  have 
no  fear  that  he  will  ever  outgrow  it.  It  will  make  itself 
more  and  more  necessary  to  him  the  greater  man  he  be- 
comes. It  will  lead  him  into  paths  where  it  alone  can 
guide  him  ;  it  will  set  him  asking  questions  which  it  alone 
can  answer  ;  it  will  lay  upon  him  duties  which  only  its 
inspiration  will  enable  him  to  do,  take  him  up  to  moun- 
tains of  sacrifice  where  only  its  power  will  nerve  him  to 
wield  the  knife,  and  point  him  to  a  heaven  of  rest  and 
purity  to  which  it  alone  can  show  him  the  way. 

Such  then  being  the  character  of  the  heritage  of  God's 
testimonies,  is  it  any  wonder  that  this  heritage  inspired 
the  Psalmist  with  joy,  and  led  him  to  call  these  testi- 
monies "the  rejoicing  of  his  heart."  Nothing  is  more 
noticeable  in  this  long  Psalm  than  the  Author's  uncon- 
cealed delight  in  the  Word  of  God.  It  comes  out  in  such 
words  as  these,  "  Oh,  how  love  I  Thy  law."  "  Thy  testi- 
timonies  are  my  delight  and  my  counsellors."  "  How 
sweet  are  Thy  words  unto  my  taste."  *'  I  will  delight 
myself  in  Thy  commandments  which  I  have  loved."  We 
cannot  read  this  Psalm  without  being  reminded  of  a 
young  heir  just  come  into  his  heritage,  ranging  over  the 
fields  and  woods,  constantly  lighting  on  some  new  object 
of  beauty  or  source  of  wealth,  breaking  out  into  wonder 
or  joy  as  new  prospects  open  to  his  eyes,  or  new  riches 
or  curiosities  are  displayed  in  the  cabinets  of  his  ancestral 
halls.  This  heritage  of  the  word  grows  richer  with  time. 
The  preacher  who  thinks  he  has  exhausted  a  text  will 
find  another  sermon  in  it  when  he  goes  to  it  again.  The 
man  who  goes  through  bis  Bible  for  the  fiftieth  time,  finds 
it  richest  in  fresh  treasures. 


244  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

"  We  search  the  world  for  truth  ;  we  cull 
The  good,  the  pure,  the  beautiful, 
From  graven  stone  and  written  scroll, 
From  all  old  flower-fields  of  the  soul ; 
And,  weary  seekers  of  the  best, 
We  come  back  laden  from  our  quest, 
To  find  that  all  the  sages  said 
Is  in  the  book  our  mothers  read. 
And  all  our  treasure  of  old  thought 
In  His  harmonious  fulness  wrought, 
Who  gathers  in  one  sheaf  complete 
The  scattered  blades  of  God's  sown  wheat, 
The  common  growth  that  maketh  good 
His  all-embracing  fatherhood. ' '  ' 

»  Whittier:  "Miriam." 


THE  GA.TE  TO  THE  DRILL- 
GROUND. 


PSALM  CXIX. 

(133)  Establish  my  sieps  in  Thy  saying, 

And  let  no  iniquity  have  dominion  over  me. 


XV. 

THE  GATE   TO.  THE    DRILL-GROUND. 

The  "steps"  or  the  "walk"  of  a  man  are  constantly 
used  in  Scripture  to  describe  his  ordinary  deportment  or  his 
habit  of  life.  Life  demands  an  economy,  a  plan  of  ad- 
ministration. When  we  rise  from  the  sphere  of  nature, 
where  the  seasons  succeed  each  o-ther  in  regular  order, 
and  the  planets  revolve  in  fixed  orbits,  and  enter  the  sphere 
of  human  life  and  intelligence,  we  do  not  leave  law  behind 
us.  We  are  still  in  the  atmosphere  of  obligation  All  the 
freedom  which  man  justly  claims  for  himself  as  a  rational 
being,  so  far  from  setting  him  above  law,  emphasizes  the 
obligation  of  law.  Even  if  he  is  a  law  unto  himself,  he  is 
still  the  subject  of  order.  What  a  modern  thinker'  has 
said  about  political  liberty,  holds  equally  true  of  moral 
liberty,  that  "  if  in  one  sense  it  is  a  sheer  negative  and  a 
doctrine  of  rights,  in  another  sense  it  is  thoroughly  posi- 
tive, and  a  gospel  of  duties." 

We  have  in  this  verse  three  aspects  of  this  truth. 

I.  It  recognizes  and  accepts  the  obligation  of  moral  or- 
der.    "  Order  my  steps." 

II.  It  fixes  the  legitimate  source  and  centre  of  that  or- 
der.    "  In  Thy  Word." 

'  John  Morley,  "  Voltaire." 


248  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

III.  It  deprecates  the  consequences  of  moral  lawless 
ness.     '*  The  dominion  of  iniquity." 

First,  then,  the  Psalmist  recognizes  and  accepts  his  obli- 
gation to  be  subject  to  moral  order.  He  prays  that  his 
daily  life,  not  only  in  its  large  outlines,  but  in  its  details, 
its  "  j/^/j "  may  be  ordered.  The  word  "order"  here 
combines  two  kindred  ideas, — " regulation "^  and  "estab- 
lishment." We  need  a  rule  of  life,  and  we  need' also  to 
become  established  in  a  habit  of  loyalty  to  that  rule.  The 
prayer,  "  Order  my  steps,"  is,  therefore,  a  prayer  for  hab- 
itual subjection  to  divine  order.  It  is  not  a  prayer  for 
great  spiritual  impulses  or  spring-tides  of  emotion.  It  is 
a  prayer  that  the  life  may  be  right,  and  always  and  per- 
sistently right. 

A  religion  which  does  not  regulate  a  m&,n's  life  is  no  re- 
ligion at  all.  It  contradicts  its  own  name ;  for,  accord- 
ing to  its  derivation,  religion  is  something  which  binds 
together  God  and  man,  and  therefore  puts  the  whole  of 
man's  life  in  contact  with  God.  All  talk  about  the  delights 
of  spiritual  communion,  and  the  cultivation  of  the  spiritual 
faculties,  is  worse  than  nonsense,  if  the  cultivation  do  not 
reach  into  man's  daily  doing.  You  might  as  well  talk  of 
the  rain  staying  on  the  mountain  tops.  If  the  rain  falls 
on  the  mountains,  the  valleys  will  get  it  in  the  simple  order 
of  nature.  Whatever  comes  into  men's  higher  life,  ap- 
pears in  some  form  in  their  lower  life.  All  spiritual  influ- 
ences, however  high  they  are  lodged,  gravitate  inevitably 
to  men's  ordinary  level  of  life.  "  As  he  thinketh  in  his  heart 
so  is  he. " '     What  you   are  in  your   thoughts,  your   im- 

'  Proverbs  xxiii.  7. 


The  Gate  to  the  Drill-Growid.  249 

pulses,  your  highest  spiritual  affinities,  men  will  ^nd  you 
on  the  plane  where  they  commonly  meet  you. 

To  one  penetrated  with  the  teaching  of  the  Gospel,  the 
divorce  between  religion  and  morality  appears  monstrous 
and  unnatural.  Yet  we  are  familiar  with  it  as  a  fact.  We 
know  the  stories  of  the  days  wlien  men  went  forth  from 
the  shadow  of  the  Church,  and  with  the  taste  of  the  sacra- 
mental bread  upon  their  lips,  to  murder  and  pillage.  We 
read  the  caustic  words  of  Voltaire  concerning  the 
younger  French  clergy  of  his  time,  who  rose  from  their 
shameless  debaucheries  and  gallantries  "  to  implore  the 
enlightenment  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  calling  themselves  the 
successors  of  the  apostles."  We  see  how  often  the  week- 
day service  of  the  devil  is  offset  by  the  devotional  activity 
of  the  Sabbath,  how  the  spiritual  coldness  and  loose  liv- 
ing of  nine  months  is  merged  in  the  revival  fervors  of  the 
remaining  three,  how  sentiment  and  "  the  enjoyment  of 
religion,"  popularly  so  called,  creeps  into  the  room  of 
duty,  and  how  helps  to  holy  living  are  converted  into  sub- 
stitutes for  it. 

There  has  been  no  lack,  in  these  later  years,  of  influen- 
ces claiming  the  highest  spiritual  sanction,  and  bearing,  ap- 
parently with  wonderful  spiritual  power,  upon  the  region 
of  Christian  heart-experience.  The  Churches  have  been 
swept  by  revivals,  a  literature  has  arisen  in  the  interest  of 
spiritual  holiness,  and  yet,  it  must  be  confessed,  that  even 
in  the  Church  itself,  the  sense  of  obligation,  of  habitual 
fidelity,  of  the  paramount  claim  of  duty,  has  not  gained 
ground  as  rapidly  as  we  might  expect. 

These  hard  times  have  developed  some  terrible  facts. 
The  strokes  of  adversity  have  laid  bare  a  fearful  amount 
II* 


250  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

of  moral  rottenness  where  it  was  least  suspected.  Morn- 
ing after  morning  we  have  taken  up  the  newspapers  only 
to  be' appalled  by  another  and  another  fall  of  men  whom 
religious  principle  had  been  thought  to  have  placed  almost 
beyond  temptation.  We  have  turned  with  sinking  of 
heart  from  that  ghastly  heap  of  ruined  savings-banks,  in- 
surance and  trust  companies,  and  stock  ' corporations, 
steeped  with  the'  tears  of  beggared  widows  and  orphans ; 
from  those  detected  betrayals  of  trust,  those  shameful 
flights,  those  tell-tale  suicides  of  men  whom  the  Church 
had  delighted  to  honor,  from  the  trifling  with  public  funds 
and  the  repudiation  of  public  obligations.  And  what  is 
worse,  behind  these  startling  developments  is  a  long  growth 
of  moral  corruption.  These  things  are  not  sudden  outbreaks 
through  the  line  of  rectitude  under  the  power  of  sudden 
temptation.  Behind  them  appear  whole  economies  of 
fraud,  long  reaches  of  villainy,  and  we  shudder  at  the 
moral  condition  of  the  man  who  could  bear  to  be  a  hypo- 
crite so  long. 

Now  Christianity  is  not  a  failure,  nor  has  moral  integ- 
rity departed  from  the  Church  or  from  the  world  ;  but  these 
and  other  facts  show  that  the  religious  teaching  of  this  day 
cannot  afford  to  weaken  the  emphasis  on  the  connection 
between  religion  and  right  living.  From  whatever  cause, 
there  has  crept  into  the  Church  a  subtle  sorcery  which  has 
bewitched  the  eyes  of  too  many  Christian  men  and  women, 
and  has  made  them  see  two  things  where  they  ought  to 
see  but  one.  Insensibly  to  themselves,  not  a  few  have 
come  to  look  at  their  devotions  and  their  spiritual  exer- 
cises as  practically  belonging  to  a  different  order  from  theii 
daily  living.     ReHgion  has  taken  on  the  character  of  a  dis- 


The  Gate  to  the  Drill-Ground.  251 

tinct  economy,  into  which  they  might  pass,  on  occasion, 
from  the  shop  or  from  the  professional  arena,  as  from  one 
house  to  another.  And  these  have  not  seen  that  feeling 
and  living,  religious  sentiment  and  religious  practice,  their 
state  of  mind  and  the  state  of  their  accounts,  their  admin- 
istration of  Church  charities,  and  their  business  dealing 
with  the  widow  and  the  orphan  their  feelings  in  prayer- 
meeting  and  their  tempers  at  home,  properly  belong  to- 
gether and  ought  to  be  of  one  piece. 

Is  the  Church's  teaching  entirely  blameless  of  this  state 
of  things?  Has  this  moral  order  been  sufficiently  pressed 
ujion  each  man  as  he  came  under  the  Church's  care  ? 
Has  he  been  made  to  feel  that  though  a  freeman  in 
Christ  Jesus,  and  under  a  new  commandment,  he  was 
under  a  commandment  still  ?  We  talk  a  good  deal  about 
preaching  the  Gospel  instead  of  the  law,  but  are  we  not 
in  some  danger  of  forgetting  that  the  Gospel  includes  all 
that  is  vital  in  the  law  ?  *'  Do  we  make  void  the  law 
through  faith  ?  God  forbid.  Yea,  we  establish  the  law. "  ' 
And  does  the  Church  impress  the  minds  of  its  new  con- 
verts as  a  sphere  in  which  their  footsteps  are  watched  over, 
in  which  they  are  getting  ordered  in  God's  Word,  and  be- 
ing taught  how  to  live  in  the  world  ?  Is  it  not  true  that, 
in  many  of  our  Churches,  young  Christians  have  somehow 
received  the  impression  that  their  great  work  was  to  learn 
how  to  speak  or  to  pray  in  religious  meetings,  or  to  do  some 
work  which  centred  in  a  Church  association  and  revolved 
round  the  Church  edifice  or  the  Sunday-School  room,  in- 
stead of  discovering  that  their  first  business  was  to  learn 

'  Romans  iii.  31. 


252  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

how  to  carry  Church  influences  into  their  home  or  school 
life,  how  to  bring  these  to  bear  in  making  them  diligent 
and  faithful,  in  controlling  their  tempers  and  in  making 
them  gentle  and  imselfish  ? 

Is  it  not  true  that  some  Christians  have  lost  hold  of  the 
connection  between  religious  enjoyment  and  duty? 
There  is  a  religious  sensuousness  which  presents  a  much 
more  subtle  temptation  than  worldly  pleasure  to  a  certain 
class  of  minds,  which  practically  sacrifices  Christian  duty 
to  Christian  joy  or  what  passes  for  such,  and  which  turns 
away  from  all  that  cannot  feed  this  craving  for  joyful  and 
exultant  frames  of  mind. 

For  example,  talk  with  our  mission  pastors,  and  they  will 
tell  you  that  not  a  few  of  their  young  people,  professing 
Christians,  the  very  ones  who  need  to  be  impressed  with 
this  thought  of  divine  order,  the  very  ones  who  need  syste- 
matic, careful  religious  training — run  away  from  these  in- 
fluences and  betake  themselves  to  hall  services,  or  to  "  Gos- 
pel Tents,"  to  listen  to  the  speaking  or  to  sing  in  the  choirs. 
And  why  do  they  go  ?  Ask  them  and  they  will  unlock  the 
whole  secret  in  a  word.  They  have  '■'■a  better  time,'^  and 
religion  with  many  of  them  means  simply  this — the  having 
a  good  time.  The  steady  influences  which  tend  to  make 
them  thoughtful,  to  lead  them  to  self-examination,  to  make 
them  conscientious  and  intelligent  in  Christian  service, 
are  not  as  pleasing  as  the  stir  of  a  superficial  religious 
sentiment  created  by  crowds  and  by  the  contagion  of  pop- 
ular song. 

That  thing  is  not  peculiar  to  missions  either  Take  the 
regular  Church  services  on  Sabbath  or  week-day.  It  does 
sometimes  seem  as  if  the  sense  of  duty  had  ceased  to  at 


The  Gate  to  the  Drill- Grotmd.  253 

tach  to  these  ;  as  if  the  covenant  into  which  a  people  en- 
tered with  their  pastor,  to  hold  up  his  hands  and  to  sustain 
him  in  the  discharge  of  his  duties,  were  supposed  to  be 
binding  only  at  each  one's  pleasure.  But  the  point  is  this, 
that  you  are  very  apt  to  find  these  same  people  at  excep- 
tional services — services  which  carry  along  with  them  a 
great  popular  enthusiasm,  and  under  the  power  of  which 
they  have  a  good  time.  No  one  objects  to  the  good  time, 
no  one  grudges  the  joy  of  quickened  feeling,  but  the  ques- 
tion is  how  the  joy  matches  the  neglected  duty  and  the 
broken  covenant.  And  I  say  without  hesitation,  that  any 
religious  enjoyment  which  a  Christian  reaches  through 
neglect  of  duty  is  worthy  of  suspicion.  Those  two  things 
do  not  belong  together.  They  are  as  opposite  as  Christ 
and  Belial;  and  when  a  Christian  man  finds  that  he  recon- 
ciles the  two  without  any  qualms  of  conscience,  he  had 
better  look  into  the  state  of  his  conscience. 

Or  look  at  the  multitude  at  large.  We  are  told  that 
tlie  Churches  should  be  supplemented,  and  perhaps  some 
think  they  should  be  supplanted,  by  hall  services  and 
tent  services.  The  Churches  don't  reach  the  masses, 
and  the  masses  do  go  to  halls.  That  is  the  argument,  and 
it  looks  very  plausible.  That  question,  however,  I  do  not 
propose  to  discuss  ;  only  there  is  one  aspect  of  the  mat- 
ter which  ought  to  be  considered  :  this,  namely,  that  hun- 
dreds of  the  i)eople  who  frequent  such  services  in  prefer- 
ence to  those  of  the  Church,  do  so  because  those  services 
lay  them  under  no  obligation.  A  man  says,  "  I  can  go  to  a 
hall  and  hear  the  Gospel  preached,  and  I  enjoy  the  singing, 
and  I  like  it  a  great  deal  better  than  going  to  Church."  And 
do  you  know  why?     Because  he  can  thus  enjoy  the  senti- 


254  Gates  into  the  Psalm   Country. 

ment  of  religion  without  feeling  its  habitual  pressure  of 
vbligation.  If  he  identifies  himself  with  a  Church,  duty 
appeals  to  his  pocket,  duty  levies  contributions  upon  his 
time,  duty  imposes  a  little  routine,  duty  puts  him  under 
certain  standing  obligations  to  his  fellow  members,  and 
that  is  just  what  he  does  not  want,  and  why  he  is  forever 
venting  cheap  sarcasms  upon  the  pride  and  exclusiveness 
and  luxury  of  the  Churches.  He  wants  to  be  unfettered. 
He  wants  to  go  and  come  as  he  pleases.  It  is  a  trifling 
matter  to  put  his  ten  or  twenty-five  cents  into  the  box  at 
the  hall,  and  he  is  in  no  danger  of  being  called  on  for 
Church-work.  He  passes  unnoticed  in  the  crowd,  and 
enjoys  his  intellectual  or  emotional  treat,  and  he  does  not 
care  to  have  religion  carry  him  any  farther  ;  and,  while  I 
make  no  attack  on  such  movements,  while  I  am  grateful 
for  whatever  spiritual  power  they  exert,  yet  I  am  bound  in 
simple  justice  to  ask  how  much  the  Church  ought  to  con- 
cede to  this  popular  demand  ;  whether  the  Church  which 
represents  Christ's  economy,  Christ's  rule  and  Christ's 
yoke,  is  not  obligated  to  make  some  stand  for  the  rule 
and  the  burden  and  the  yoke,  and  to  be  cautious  how 
she  encourages  the  sentiment  which  seeks  to  evade  them. 
God  forbid  that  I  should  depreciate  genuine  Christian 
emotion.  God  forbid  I  should  throw  into  the  faintest 
shadow  the  necessity  of  the  great  heart  change  which  must 
precede  every  man's  entrance  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 
God  forbid  that  I  should  speak  slightingly  of  crude  Chris- 
tian experience,  or  be  intolerant  of  its  weakness  and  error. 
It  is  rather  because  of  its  weakness  and  error,  and  because  I 
know  that  no  one  but  Christ  can  deal  with  it  at  once  wisely 
and  tenderly,  that  I  would  have  it  come  at  once  under  the 


The  Gate  to  the  Drill- Ground.  255 

yoke,  and  learn  that  it  comes  into  Christ's  kingdom  to 
acquire  a  fixed  habit  of  doing  right,  and  of  respecting 
moral  obligation  first  everywhere. 

Perhaps  the  Church  needs  no  less  preaching  about  the 
state  of  the  heart,  but  it  needs  more  preaching  going  to 
show  how  spiritual  conditions  everywhere  touch  practical 
life.  It  is  a  very  comfortable  theory  that  evil  is  so  mighty 
in  human  nature  that  a  man  may  as  well  give  up  all  idea 
of  moral  consistency,  and  go  blundering  along  any  way, 
provided  he  feels  that  he  is  justified  by  faith.  That  theory 
will  not  stand  the  test  of  the  Gospel.  I  know  God's  law 
is  perfect.  I  know  men  are  imperfect  and  weak.  1  know 
they  will  inevitably  stumble.  The  Lord  Himself  admits 
that  in  the  very  passage  where  He  tells  us  that  the  steps 
of  a  good  man  are  ordered  of  the  Lord.  But  granting  all 
that,  any  faith  which  does  not  issue  in  character,  any  faith 
which  does  not  put  a  man's  life  on  the  lines  of  moral 
order,  any  faith  which  calls  weakly  toward  practical  duty, 
any  faith  which  does  not  charge  his  nature  with  the  pur- 
l)ose — ever  renewed  amid  all  his  lapses — to  have  his  steps 
ordered  in  God's  Word,  is  a  sham  and  a  delusion,  and  will 
shrivel  like  gauze  in  the  judgment  fire.  Character  is  what 
the  world  wants  of  Christian  men,  and  not  raptures.  The 
strongest  argument  the  Gospel  can  bring  to  bear  on  the 
world,  is  a  man  whose  life  is  an  embodiment  of  heavenly 
order,  who  carries  the  mark  of  his  heavenly  citizenship  in 
his  common  intercourse  as  distinctly  as  a  Frenchman  or  a 
German  does  the  stamp  of  his  nationality,  and  who  moves 
straight  out  on  the  line  of  God's  Word,  no  matter  whose 
word  lies  across  the  track. 

For,  turning  now  to  the  second  suggestion  of  the  text, 


256  Gates  hito  the  Psalm  Comitry. 

we  see  that  the  Psahiiist  recognizes  the  source  and  centre 
of  all  moral  order.  God  is  its  centre  and  God's  Word  its 
manual,  and  to  God  he  addresses  himself  in  prayer  that 
he  may  be  drawn  and  kept  within  the  sphere  of  His  heav- 
enly order.  "Wherewithal,"  he  elsewhere  asks,  "  shall  a 
young  man  cleanse  his  way?"  And  he  answers,  "By 
taking  heed  thereto  according  to  Thy  Word."  '  This  whole 
long  Psalm  is  a  series  of  variations  on  that  theme — the 
law  of  God,  the  Word  of  God  as  the  guide  and  inspirer 
of  human  life.  And  we  must  look  at  the  whole  Bible  from 
this  standpoint.  It  was  not  given  to  teach  us  natural 
science,  nor  philosophy,  nor  history,  but  to  reveal  to  us 
divine  character,  to  help  us  reproduce  it  in  ourselves,  and 
to  inspire  us  with  heavenly  affections.  Hence,  the  Bible 
is,  first  of  all,  a  text-book  of  moral  order.  It  has  an  or- 
der in  itself,  for  instance.  To  the  careless  reader  it  seems 
like  a  mass  of  disjointed  fragziients  ;  a  deeper  study  shows 
the  steady  development  of  a  great  moral  purpose  pervad- 
ing it  from  Genesis  to  Revelation.  Those  emigrations, 
wars,  and  revolutions  do  not  tread  upon  each  other's  heels 
in  wild  confusion,  however  they  may  seem  to  do  so.  A 
power  is  behind  and  through  them  all,  ranging  them  on 
the  lines  of  a  divine  order,  and  directing  them  towards  a 
divine  purpose. 

Then,  too,  the  Bible  is  not  only  the  history  of  this  un- 
folding purpose.  Along  with  the  unfolding  goes  a  power 
which  is  ever  seeking  to  draw  men  into  its  track,  to  put 
them  in  practical  sympathy  and  co-operation  with  God's 
order.     You  must  have  noticed  how  full  of  yearning  the 

'  Psahn  cxix.  9. 


The  Gate  to  the  Drill- Ground.  257 

]3ible  is,  how  it  pulsates  with  Divine  attraction,  how  every 
history  and  every  argument  and  every  impassioned  burst 
of  holy  soilg,  comes  round  in  some  way  to  man  with  invi- 
tation, or  warning,  or  instruction  ;  how  its  closest  logic 
warms  into  appeal,  and  its  most  formal  statement  has  a 
side  on  which  it  grapples  with  the  living  soul  and  pulls  it 
toward  the  kingdom  of  God,  the  realm  of  His  moral 
order. 

And  the  Bible  brings  to  bear  upon  a  man  a  variety  of 
influences,  all  tending  to  the  ordering  of  his  steps. 

First,  it  CENTRES  him.  Whatever  the  Bible  is,  it  is,  first 
of  all,  a  revelation  of  God.  It  keeps  God  before  him  con- 
tinually. All  its  own  movement  centres  in  God,  all  its 
sanctions  are  God's.  There  is  no  detail  but  is  referred 
to  God.  There  is  no  escape  from  God.  He  must  love 
God  first  and  above  all.  He  must  obey  God  at  all  haz- 
ards. His  life  must  take  its  highest  inspiration  from  God, 
his  trust  must  be  in  God  only,  he  must  work  on  God's 
plans  and  be  satisfied  with  God's  measure  and  quality  of 
success.  God  must  be  all  and  in  all,  and  the  very  key- 
note of  his  daily  thought  must  be,  "  Whom  have  I  in 
heaven  but  Thee,  and  there  is  none  upon  earth  that  I  de- 
sire beside  Thee."  ' 

Secondly,  it  regulates  him.  The  statutes  of  the  Lord 
are  right,  and  are  meant,  as  some  one  has  quaintly  said, 
*'  to  set  us  to  rights."  It  does  not  make  itself  superfluous. 
It  does  not  bring  man  into  the  sphere  of  God's  order,  and 
leave  him  there,  but  it  leads  him  along  in  that  order,  order- 
ing every  step  until  he  steps  from  earth  to  heaven.     To 

'  Psalm  Ixxiii.  25. 


258  Gates  into  the  Psalm   Country. 

take  a  single  point,  how  strenuously  it  insists  on  the  order 
ing  of  the  steps.  There  never  was  a  book  which  pressed 
so  strongly  for  the  right  regulation  of  details.  The  Bible 
will  not  allow  us  to  regard  anything  as  a  trifle  in  our  moral 
development.  No  sin  is  to  be  carelessly  dismissed  be- 
cause it  is  a  little  one.  No  work  is  to  be  shirked  because 
it  is  small.  No  place  is  to  be  negligently  filled  because 
it  is  remote  and  obscure.  No  man  is  to  be  despised  be- 
cause he  is  insignificant.  No  lesson  of  Providence  is  to 
go  unheeded  because  it  is  only  a  hint.  No  step  in  life  is 
to  be  carelessly  taken  because  it  is  but  a  step.  No  op 
portunity  is  to  be  discarded  because  it  promises  but  a 
little  good.  With  all  its  broad  outlook,  with  all  its  gener- 
ous freedom,  it  keeps  a  sharp  eye  upon  these  details,  anc" 
insists  that  they  all  shall  come  under  its  divine  order. 

Thirdly,  it  restrains  him.  There  is  no  order  withou/ 
restraint.  Restraint  is  implied  in  guidance.  Yonder  planel 
which  fulfils  its  appointed  course  in  its  orbit,  and  century 
by  century  traverses  the  same  unvarying  track,  moves  in- 
deed under  a  pow^er  which  propels  it  from  the  centre,  but 
it  moves  also  under  a  power  which  holds  it  to  the  centre. 
And  noching  in  the  Bible  is  more  striking  than  this  union 
of  impulse  and  restraint.  What  tremendous  impulses  it 
gives.  What  a  wonderful  inspiration  it  has  communicated 
to  certain  men.  What  intense  enthusiasm  its  principles 
have  created  in  great  bodies  of  men.  What  power,  what 
directness,  what  concentration  it  has  imparted  to  moral 
movements.  And  yet  what  checks  it  imposes.  How  it 
curbs  the  ill-judged  zeal  of  the  Peters,  and  rebukes  the 
faithless  caution  of  the  Thomases.  How  it  damps  the 
conceited  courage  which  is  ready  to  venture  into  tempta- 


The  Gate  to  the  Drill- Ground.  250 

tion,  and  rebukes  the  spirit  which  would  make  showy  sacri- 
fice stand  for  humble  obedience.  How  it  cools  down  our 
feverishness  in  our  haste  to  be  rich  or  great,  and  lays  a 
detaining  hand  upon  the  burdens  with  which  our  ambi- 
bition  or  our  avarice  would  oppress  our  souls  and  divide 
them  from  God.  How  clearly  the  Psalmist  recognized 
this  restraining  quality  of  the  Word  when  he  said,  "More- 
over by  them  is  thy  servant  warned  ;  keep  back  thy  serv- 
ant also  from  presumptuous  sins."  ' 

And  then,  fourthly,  it  establishes  him.  The  Bible 
brings  the  element  of  fixedness  more  and  more  into  our 
lives.  We  throw  away  from  our  ideas  of  life  and  duty  as  we 
grow  older,  much  which  at  one  time  appeared  to  us  vital, 
and  the  Bible  encourages  us  to  throw  it  away ;  but  we  settle 
down  more  and  more  upon  a  few  great,  underlying  truths — 
God,  Christ,  worship,  obedience,  purity,  love  to  our  neigh- 
bor :  and  more  and  more,  year  by  year,  the  Bible  fastens 
us  to  these,  and  reveals  in  them  new  power  and  longer 
reach,  and  greater  variety  of  application.  We  become 
established  in  our  convictions  as  we  learn  more  of  Christ 
— the  truth.  We  become  established  in  godly  living  as  we 
find  out  for  ourselves  that  godliness  is  profitable.  We  be- 
come established  in  our  love  for  God's  order,  as  we  find, 
everywhere  along  its  track,  precious  consolations,  new 
hopes,  substantial  joys,  sweet  fellowships.  So  with  these, 
and  with  its  healthful  and  sometimes  severe  touch  upon 
lax  moral  fibre  and  wavering  resolution,  the  Bible  builds 
up  character,  conveying  into  it  more  and  more  of  the 
eternal  stability  of  God's  character,  rooting  and  grounding 

'  Psalm  xix.  11-13. 


26o  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

it  in  love,  and  stablishing,  strengthening,  settling  it  in  faith. 
Some  of  you  can  look  back  over  periods  of  restlessness, 
shifting  conviction,  and  unsettled  resolution,  and  you  can 
see  how,  through  these,  you  have  worked  your  way,  with 
the  help  of  God  and  of  the  Word,  to  a  point  where,  though 
you  believe  fewer  things,  you  believe  those  few  with  all 
your  heart ;  where  you  stand  on  certain  immutable  truths 
as  on  the  bases  of  the  mountains  ;  where  you  never  think 
of  turning  to  any  refuge  save  one  in  your  trouble ;  where 
it  has  gotten  to  be  the  settled  habit  of  your  life  to  obey 
conscience,  and  to  accept  God's  verdict  as  final;  and  in 
this  blessed  fixedness  you  can  sing, 

"  Now  rest,  my  long  divided  heart ; 
Fixed  on  this  blissful  centre,  rest ; 
Nor  ever  from  thy  Lord  depart, 

With  Him  of  every  good  possessed." 

Having  acknowledged  the  obligation  to  be  under  moral 
order,  having  recognized  the  source  and  centre  of  that 
order,  having  prayed  that  he  might  be  introduced  to  that 
divine  order  and  kept  in  it,  the  Psalmist  naturally  prays 
to  be  delivered  from  the  consequence  of  moral  lawless- 
ness :  and  that  consequence  is  expressed  in  a  word — sub- 
jection. In  his  prayer  that  iniquity  may  not  have  domin- 
ion over  him,  he  utters  the  truth  that  sin  is  servitude ;  the 
truth  which  Paul  expressed  in  those  significant  words, 
"  Know  ye  not  that  to  whom  ye  yield  yourselves  serv- 
ants to  obey,  his  servants  ye  are  to  whom  ye  obey, 
whether  of  sin  unto  death  or  of  obedience  unto  right- 
eousness ?  ■''  *      That  is    not  what  men  want   or   expecl 

'  Romans  vi.  i6. 


The  Gate  to  the  Drill- Ground,  261 

when  they  seek  to  escape  God's  order.  They  resent  the 
attempt  to  order  their  steps,  on  the  ground  that  such  order- 
ing  impairs  their  freedom  ;  but  they  find  that,  instead  of 
securing  freedom,  they  but  go  from  one  dominion  to 
another ;  that,  in  keeping  out  of  God's  order,  they  fall  into 
Satan's  kingdom. 

Well,  then,  may  we  join  in  the  Psalmist's  prayer,  "  Or- 
der my  steps  in  Thy  Word,  and  let  not  any  iniquity  have 
dominion  over  me."  This  is  not  a  text  for  special  emer- 
gencies, but  for  to-day,  and  for  to-morrow,  and  for  every 
day,  with  its  steps  which  lead  us,  now  in  many  paths  of 
routine,  now  through  darkness  and  now  through  light ;  for 
lives  which  are  made  up  of  multitudinous  details,  which 
are  full  of  pettiness  and  of  common-place.  We  can  take 
down  into  these  no  better  prayer  than  this,  "  Order  my 
steps  in  Thy  Word."  Out  of  these  things  character  is 
built.  The  great  distinguishing  stamp  which  is  set  upon 
our  life  as  a  whole,  comes  through  the  right  ordering  of 
these  details.  O,  aim  for  this.  Aim  to  contribute  to  the 
Church's  work  and  to  the  world's  welfare  this  high,  grand 
gift  of  character.  Aim  to  keep  before  that  portion  of 
society  which  you  touch,  the  spectacle  of  a  life  regulated 
by  a  higher  law  than  the  world's  elastic  law  of  expediency. 
And  that  you  may  do  this,  keep  your  lives  in  contact  with 
the  Word,  and  feed  them  from  its  living  springs.  So  shall 
every  step  be  ordered,  and  men  as  they  behold  you  shall 
say,  "He  walks  with  God." 


THE   GATE   TO   THE   HIGH- 
LANDS. 


PSALM   CXXI. 

(1)  I  lift  up  mine  eyes  unto  the  mountains  ; 
Whence  should  my  help  come  ? 

(2)  My  help  (cometh)  from  Jehovah, 
The  Maker  of  heaven  and  earth. 

(3)  May  He  not  suffer  thy  foot  to  be  moved  ; 
May  He  that  keepeth  thee  not  slumber. 

(4)  Behold,  He  doth  neither  slumber  nor  sleep 
That  keepeth  Israel. 

(5)  Jehovah  is  thy  Keeper, 

Jehovah  is  thy  shade  upon  thy  right  hand. 

(6)  The  sun  shall  not  smite  thee  by  day, 
Nor  the  moon  by  night. 

(7)  Jehovah  shall  keep  thee  from  all  evil, 
He  shall  keep  thy  soul. 

(8)  Jehovah  shall  keep  thy  going  out  and  thy  coming  in, 
From  this  time  forth  and  for  evermore. 


XVI. 

THE   GATE   TO  THE    HIGHLANDS. 

/fHis  is  one  of  the  "Pilgrim  Psalms,"  or  "  Songs  of 
Degrees,"  sung  by  the  Jews  in  their  annual  journeys  or 
"  goings  up  "  to  Jerusalem. 

It  has  been  supposed  that  this,  the  second  of  these 
songs,  may  have  been  used  by  the  caravans,  when  they 
encamped,  on  the  evening  previous  to  their  entering  the 
city,  in  sight  of  the  mountains  which  "  are  round  about 
Jerusalem."  Mountains  naturally  suggest  refuge  and  de- 
fence. Hence  it  is  said,  "  As  the  mountains  are  round 
about  Jerusalem,  so  the  Lord  is  round  about  His  people."  * 
"  How  say  ye  to  my.  soul,  flee,  as  a  bird,  to  your  moun- 
tain ?"  '  Nothing  could  be  more  suggestive  of  shelter 
than  the  position  of  the  Holy  City  within  its  rampart  of 
mountains  ;  and  farther,  the  circumstances  of  travellers 
like  those  i)ilgrims  were  such  as  to  emphasize  the  thought 
of  protection  and  shelter.  By  day  they  were  exposed  to 
the  glare  and  stroke  of  the  blazing  Eastern  sun  ;  by  night 
it  was  supposed  that  the  rays  of  the  bright  moon  had 
power  to  affect  those  who  were  exposed  to  them  ;  the 
camp,  too,  might  be  surprised  by  a  night  attack  of  the 
plundering  desert  hordes.  All  these  thoughts  would 
blend  in  the  pilgrims'  mind  with  the  sense  of  loneliness 


■  Psalm  cxxv.  2.  '  Psalm  xi.  i. 

12 


266  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

and  of  absence  from  home,  which  deepened  with  the 
gathering  shades  of  evening,  and  would  prompt  the  ques- 
tion "  Whence  shall  my  help  come  ?  "  And  as  the  eye 
took  in  the  dark  mountains  behind  which  lay  the  city  of 
their  love  and  pride,  what  wonder  if  the  pilgrims  should 
break  out  into  song — "  I  will  lift  up  mine  eyes  unto  the 
mountains.  Whence  should  my  help  come?  My  help 
Cometh  from  the  Lord."  . 

There  are  no  points  in  our  earthly  pilgrimage  where 
the  need  of  Divine  help  is  not  more  or  less  remotely 
suggested.  Experience  has  taught  us  not  to  hold  our- 
selves absolutely  secure,  even  in  the  most  happy  times 
and  under  the  most  prosperous  circumstances.  In  our 
homes,  no  less  than  on  the  sea,  as  we  walk  the  quiet 
streets,  no  less  than  when  we  are  whirled  along  the  rail- 
way, we  are  reminded  of  the  old,  somewhat  doleful,  but 
nevertheless  truthful  lines  : — 

"  Dangers  stand  thick  through  all  the  ground. 
To  push  us  to  the  tomb  ; 
And  fierce  diseases  wait  around, 
To  hurry  mortals  home." 

And  when  we  add  to  these  the  spiritual  darkness  and 
perplexity  out  of  which  we  so  often  have  to  "  stretch 
lame  hands "  towards  God,  the  questions  before  which 
our  minds  sink  helplessly  down,  the  doubts  which  distract 
and  torment  us, — how  much  of  our  life  is  left  in  which 
this  strain  will  not  come  appropriately  to  our  lips — "  I 
will  lift  up  mine  eyes  unto  the  mountains  ;  whence  should 
my  help  come  ?  " 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  expectation    of  the  singer  of 


The  Gate  to  the  Highlands.  267 

this  Psalm  is  that  help  shall  come  down  to  him.  He  is  as 
one  who  tights  a  battle  in  the  plain,  and  who  looks  to  see 
the  reserves  descending  the  mountain-side  to  his  support. 
"  I  will  /;//  ///  mine  eyes.  Whence  shall  help  come 
tome?"  The  question,  observe,  is  not  how  he  shall 
make  his  way  to  the  help ;  how  he  shall  get  up  to  the 
mountains  :  the  help  is  to  come  down  from  the  moun- 
tains :  "  My  help  cometh  from  the  Lord." 

And  here  we  touch  one  of  the  great  mistakes  in  both 
Christian  teacliing  and  Christian  experience.  As  to  Chris- 
tian teaching,  we  too  often  hear  about  what  men  must  do 
to  get  near  to  God ;  what  steps  they  must  mount,  what 
methods  they  must  use  to  make  God's  promises  available  ; 
instead  of  having  the  fact  emphasized  that  God  himself, 
and  with  Him  help,  strength,  pardon,  wisdom,  all  things, 
come  down  to  us,  and  are  put  freely  at  our  disposal.  We 
do  not  have  first  to  lift  ourselves  to  God  :  God  comes 
down  to  us  ;  and  whatever  lifting  there  is  to  be  done.  He 
does.  We  do  not  have  to  climb  to  our  refuge  :  He  com- 
passes our  path  and  our  lying  down  :  fortifies  the  places 
where  we  walk  and  where  we  rest.  We  do  not  have  to 
march  to  our  reserves  :  when  we  are  hard  beset  they  pour 
down  from  the  hills  of  God  and  range  themselves  around 
and  beside  us,  as  Elisha  saw  them  from  the  house-top  in 
Dothan.  I  remember  receiving  a  letter  from  a  highly-culti- 
vated woman,  not  then  a  Christian,  but  profoundly  and  anx- 
iously thoughtful  about  divine  truth  ;  and  in  the  letter  oc- 
curred these  words  :  "  How  shall  I  get  to  Christ  ?  By  virtue 
of  what  I  am,  I  feel  that  I  can  go  near  to  human  souls,  and 
claim  what  belongs  to  me  of  their  best  spiritual  possessions, 
because  their  sphere,  so  to  speak,  is  mine.   But  with  Christ 


268  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

the  case  is  different.  My  sphere  is  infinitely  below  His 
How  shall  I  get  into  it  that  I  may  touch  Him  and  draw 
virtue  out  of  Him  ? "  There  is  the  error  distinctly  ex- 
pressed. The  thought  in  the  writer's  mind  which  kept 
her  far  from  God,  which  prevented  her  drawing  virtue  at 
once  from  Christ,  Avas  the  thought  that  she  must  get  into 
Christ's  sphere  before  she  could  avail  herself  of  Him  ; 
whereas  the  truth  was  that  Christ  stood  ready  to  save  her 
all  that  trouble  by  coming  down  into  her  sphere  and  giv^ 
ing  her  what  she  needed.  I  pointed  her  to  the  tenth  chap- 
ter of  Romans  :  "  The  righteousness  which  is  of  faith  speak- 
eth  on  this  wise.  Say  not  in  thine  heart,  who  shall  ascend 
into  heaven  ?  (that  is  to  bring  Christ  down  from  above): 
or,  who  shall  descend  into  the  deep  ?  (that  is  to  bring  up 
Christ  again  from  the  dead):  but  what  saith  it  ?  The  word 
is  nigh  thee,  even  in  thy  mouth  and  in  thy  heart."  By  vir- 
tue of  what  we  are,  we  cannot  get  into  Christ's  sphere.  My 
friend's  difficulty  was  a  real  one.  But  Christ  by  virtue 
of  what  He  is  or  becomes,  can  and  does  put  Himself  into 
our  sphere.  It  is  with  us  as  with  that  poor  woman  who 
touched  the  hem  of  His  garment.'  If  she  had  had  to  make 
her  way  by  some  long  journey  to  the  Lord,  she  never  could 
have  touched  Him,  and  never  could  have  been  healed  ;  but 
Jesus  came  where  she  was  :  He  put  himself,  even  amid  all 
that  throng,  where  she  could  reach  Him,  and  then  it  was 
her  own  fault  if  she  did  not  touch  and  be  healed.  We  reason 
as  if  we  had  got  to  be  something  other  or  better  or  higher 
than  we  are  before  we  can  expect  God's  help  :  whereas  the 
the  help  has  already  descended  from  the  hills.     God  Him- 

'  Matthew  ix.  20-22. 


The  Gate  to  the  Highlands.  269 

self  comes  down  into  the  sphere  of  our  weakness,  imper- 
fection, ignorance,  spirituaf  obtuseness,  and  from  that  low 
level  commences  the  work  of  lifting,  enlightening  and  de- 
veloping lis.  What  we  want  is  to  have  our  eyes  open  so 
that  we  may  see  Him  here  and  now^  available  to  us  as  we 
are.  Too  often  we  are  like  the  disciples  on  the  way  to 
Emmaus.^  Christ  was  the  one  object  of  their  desire  and 
hope  ;  they  could  talk  of  nothing  else.  They  trusted  that 
it  had  been  He  which  should  have  redeemed  Israel.  Some 
of  them  had  been  to  the  tomb  that  morning,  and  had  found 
nothing  but  the  napkin  and  the  linen  clothes  :  and  now, 
"  Where  is  He  ?  He  is  not  here.  He  is  still  beyond  our 
reach  or  knowledge,"  Ah  !  what  a  mistake.  He  was 
there  all  the  while.  He  was  talking  with  them,  their 
hearts  were  burning  under  some  strange  power,  the  Word 
was  nigh  them  in  their  heart  and  in  their  mouth  ;  and  by 
and  by  their  eyes  were  opened  and  they  knew  their  help 
had  come,  and  that  they  need  look  into  the  tomb,  and 
strain  tiieir  thought  into  the  world  of  spirits  no  more. 

The  Psalm  gives  us  two  assurances  of  God's  help, 
namely,  His  power  in  creation  and  His  power  in  inunaii 
history. 

We  get  a  hint  of  the  first  of  these  in  the  words,  "  My 
help  Cometh  fi^pm  the  Lord  who  fnade  heaven  and  earth  ; 
He  will  not  suffer  thy  foot  to  be  moved."  This  is  one 
of  those  expressions  which,  seeming  at  first  to  be  merely 
poetical,  is  seen,  on  closer  study,  to  carry  one  of  the 
great  primary  facts  of  God's  character  and  administration  : 
this,  namely,  that  the  God  of  creation  is  also  the  God  of 

'  Luke  xxiv.  13-34, 


270  Gates  into  the  Psalm   Country. 

providetice.  How  positively,  how  assuredly,  how  natu- 
rally, without  the  slightest  hint  that  the  process  requires 
any  explanation  or  apology,  does  this  verse  blend  together 
God's  superintendence  of  the  vast  work  of  creation,  and 
His  special  care  for  one. poor,  helpless  man,  girt  round  by 
the  dangers  of  the  night  in  the  desert.  My  help  cometh 
from  the  Creator.  Here,  over  the  pilgrim's  head, 
stretches  the  blue  vault  with  its  countless  stars  and  its 
bright  round  moon.  "  The  heavens  declare  the  glory  of 
God,  and  the  firmament  showeth  His  handiwork."  '  Here 
is  the  tabernacle  for  the  sun  :  the  influences  of  these  orbs 
radiate  forth  to  the  very  ends  of  the  earth  :  a  perfect 
order  and  harmony  pervades  them.  There  are  the  moun- 
tains, raised  on  their  deep  lying  strata  by  almighty  Power. 
Centuries  pass  over  them  and  they  are  the  same.  "  By 
His  strength  He  setteth  fast  the  mountains,  being  girded 
with  power."  ^  And  yet  I  will  lift  up  mine  eyes  to  the 
hills  ;  my  help  cometh  from  the  Lord,  who  made  heaven 
and  earth ;  the  ordering  of  the  universe  keeps  Him  not 
from  ordering  my  steps ;  if  He  holds  the  sun  and  the 
moon  in  their  courses,  He  none  the  less  gives  them  charge 
not  to  smite  me  by  day  or  by  night ;  if  He  setteth  fast  the 
mountains,  none  the  less  will  He  not  suffer  my  foot  to  be 
moved ;  if  He  orders  the.  succession  of  seasons  and  of 
day  and  night,  none  the  less  are  my  steps  "  ordered  of  the 
Lord."  °  The  Psalm  tells  a  different  story  from  certain  of 
the  high  priests  of  modern  science.  They  tell  us  that 
some  one  or  something  made  the  world,  or  that  the  world 
somehow  came  to  pass,  and   that,  being  wound  up  like 

'  Psalm  xix.  i.  °  Psalm  Ixv.  6.  ^  Psalm  xxxvii.  2> 


The  Gate  to  the  Highlands.  271 

some  great  machine,  it  pursues  its  course  with  its  whole 
attendant  train  of  suns  and  stars  ;  and  that  rivers  and 
oceans  and  seas,  and  snow  and  vapor  and  stormy  wind 
simply  follow  a  great  mechanical  law,  and  the  poor  little 
man  must  get  on  in  the  midst, of  this  stupendous  machine- 
ry as  best  he  can.  In  other  words,  creation  and  provi- 
dence are  disjoined.  Creation  excludes  providence,  I 
shiver  in  this  atmosi)here.  Let  me  rather  go  back  to  the 
pilgrims'  tent,  and  sit  there  and  see  the  night  gather  over 
the  mountains,  and  feel  that  the  God  of  the  mountains 
and  of  the  stars  is  my  God  also.  Let  me  rather  feel  the 
facts  of  providential  care,  and  daily  oversight,  and  fatherly 
sympathy,  emphasized  by  the  evidences  of  creative  power 
and  wisdom  which  I  see  in  the  mountains  and  in  the  stars. 
This,  at  any  rate,  is  the  way  Scripture  puts  the  case.  The 
whole  thrust  of  Scripture  is  upon  man.  The  whole  move- 
ment of  its  doctrine,  its  history,  its  imagery  is  from  God 
downwards  to  man  ;  and  the  incarnation,  which  gathers  up 
all  Scripture  into  itself,  which  is  the  key  to  all  its  history 
and  to  all  its  symbolism,  is  expressly  a  movement  out  of 
the  very  heart  of  God,  down  to  sick,  suftering,  erring,  sin- 
stained  man.  The  life,  the  words,  the  death  of  Jesus 
Christ  are  simply  God's  way  of  saying  to  man,  "  All 
things  are  yours :  "  and  so  the  Hebrew  pilgrim  was  on  the 
right  track  when  he  combined  creative  power  and  provi- 
dential care  in  one  and  the  same  Being ;  when  he  recog- 
nized in  the  God  of  the  mountains,  the  Father  "full  of 
grace  and  truth,"  and  saw  nothing  inconsistent  in  God's 
creating  and  ordering  the  heavenly  host,  and  in  God's 
making  himself  a  shadow  in  the  heat  for  a  weary  man  in 
the  desert :  in  God's   keeping  watch  and  ward  round  the 


2/2  Gates  into  the  Psahit  Country. 

circuit  of  the  heavens,  and  in  God's  acting  as  sentinel  of 
a  pilgrim's  tent  in  the  wilderness. 

The  Psalmist  draws  a  second  assurance  of  Divine  pro- 
tection from  history.  Having  reasoned  that  the  God  of 
nature  will  care  for  him,  he  now  reasons  that  the  God  of 
nations  will  care  for  him.  "  He  that  keepeth  Israel  will 
neither  slumber  nor  sleep."  The  Hebrew's  range  of  his- 
tory was  indeed  Umited  to  the  history  of  his  own  people, 
but  the  study  of  that  record  had  resulted  in  rooting  deeply 
in  the  Hebrew  mind  the  conception  of  God  in  history. 
All  his  education  had  emphasized  one  thought,  that  God 
had  chosen  his  race  and  had  taken  it  under  His  especial 
protection.  He  had  been  taught  to  associate  God  directly 
and  intimately  with  all  the  heroes  of  his  nation,  and  with 
all  the  incidents  of  its  history.  "  The  God  of  Abraham, 
of  Isaac  and  of  Jacob  "  was  a  familiar  formula  of  speech 
and  of  prayer.  The  migrations,  the  battles,  the  victories, 
the  escapes  of  His  people  had  been  God's  work.  It  was 
a  grand  result.  It  was  worth  a  great  deal  of  severe  ex- 
perience to  get  that  thought  so  rooted  in  the  mind  of  a 
whole  people,  that  twenty  centuries  have  not  been  able  to 
dislodge  it ;  and  it  is  a  pity  that  an  age  which  writes  as 
much  history  as  ours  does,  and  writes  it  so  well,  an  age 
which  studies  history  as  much  as  ours  does,  and  studies  it 
so  broadly,  should  nevertheless  so  often  press  history  into 
the  service  of  practical  atheism,  and  leave  God  out  of  it. 
But  the  point  to  be  particularly  noted  here  is  that  the 
Hebrew  drew  from  his  study  of  history  quite  an  opposite 
conclusion  to  that  which  the  modern  philosopher  draws 
from  the  same  study.  For  the  philosopher  sees  the  move- 
ment of  history  in  great  masses,  and  under  great  general 


The  Gate  to  the  Highlands.  273 

laws,  and  concludes  that  it  takes  little  or  no  account  of 
the  individual  man,  and  that  he  lives  his  little  life  and  is 
swallowed  up  and  whirled  away  with  no  one  or  nothing  to 
look  after  him.  And  so,  whatever  grand  and  sublime  con- 
ceptions of'history  he  may  get,  he  gets  very  little  personal 
comfort  out  of  it,  very  little  which  warms  his  heart.  The 
Hebrew,  on  the  contrary,  made  all  history  his  own.  The 
more  clearly  he  saw  God  working  for  the  race,  the  more 
clearly  he  saw  God  working  for  hi?n.  The  grandeur  of 
God's  dealings  with  the  people  as  a  whole,  the  occasions 
on  which  He  handled  them  as  one  man,  did  not  at  all  in- 
terfere with  his  sense  of  God's  hand  upon  him  iiidividiially . 
The  fact  that  God  watched  over  Israel  as  a  nation,  was  to 
him  the  best  reason  for  believing  that  He  watched  over 
him.  The  fact  that  God  was  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  encour- 
aged him  to  say  "  the  Lord  is  my  light  and  my  salvation."  ' 
The  God  whose  unslumbering  eye  had  watched  the  desti- 
nies of  Israel  through  all  the  changing  years,  was  the  very 
One  whom  the  pilgrim  could  most  trust  to  preserve  his 
life  from  all  evil.  And  the  Hebrew  was  nearer  the  truth 
than  the  philosopher.  He  not  only  won  comfort,  but  he 
drew  it  legitimately.  All  the  past  of  all  men  is  yours  and 
mine,  for  the  reason  that  God  is  in  it :  and  whatever  les- 
sons of  His  power  or  mercy  or  forbearance,  of  his  good- 
ness and  love,  of  his  favor  and  vengeance,  it  contains,  we 
may  take,  and  he  means  us  to  take  for  our  own  individual 
assurance  or  instruction  or  warning. 

"  Keeping  "  is  the  key-note  of  this  Psalm  ;  God  the 
KEEPER.     The  word  "keep "or  "preserve"  occurs  six 

'  Psalm  xxvii.  i. 


2/4  Gates  iitto  the  Psahn   Country. 

times  in  the  course  of  it ;  and  from  what  we  have  read  of 
it  thus  far,  we  might  be  tempted  to  think  that  the  Psahnist 
recognized  God's  keeping  only  in  special  dangers,  like 
that  from  sunstroke  or  from  the  midnight  robber  ;  but  as 
we  read  farther  that  impression  is  removed.  '•  The  Lord 
shall  preserve  thee  from  all  evil.  He  shall  preserve  thy 
S07il.  The  Lord  shall  preserve  thy  going  out  and  thy  com- 
ing in,"  an  expression  which  denotes  the  whole  life  and 
occupations  of  a  man.  How  complete  is  this  protection, 
extending  to  all  that  the  man  is  and  does.  "Thee," 
"  thy  soul,"  "  thy  going  out  and  thy  coming  in."  How 
forcibly  one  is  reminded  of  Paul's  prayer  for  the  Thessa- 
lonians,  "I  pray  God  your  whole  spirit  and  soul  and  body 
be  preserved  blameless  unto  the  coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ."  '  But  while  there  is  assurance  of  complete  pro- 
tection, there  is  also  the  significant  hint  of  danger  every- 
where, calling  for  a  constant  abiding  "  under  the  shadow 
of  the  Almighty."  *  One  thought  which  we  need  to  en- 
courage is  that  we  are  nowhere  safe,  and  not  a  moment 
safe  without  God  :  and  we  never  shall  feel  the  full  weight 
of  that  conviction  until  we  shall  have  clearly  perceived 
the  meaning  of  the  hint  conveyed  in  the  words,  "  The 
I^ord  shall  preserve  thy  soul."  When  we  are  most  secure 
from  bodily  harm  we  are  sometimes  in  greatest  danger 
from  spiritual  evil ;  and  danger  to  the  soul  is  our  greatest 
and  most  imminent  danger,  calhng  for  God's  continuous 
protection.  All  these  promises  in  the  Psalm  would  be  of 
very  little  account  without  God's  promise  to  preserve  the 
soul.      Temptation  sometimes  arises  out  of  the  very  cir* 

'  I  Thessalonians  v.  23.  *  Psalm  xci.  i. 


The  Gate  to  the  Highlands.  275 

cumstances  which  make  us  the  most  safe  from  outward 
clanger.  More  men  have  fallen  into  sin  through  a  sense 
of  security  than  from  a  sense  of  impending  clanger.  The 
soul  is  the  very  citadel  of  the  life,  and  if  God's  protection 
do  not  extend  to  that,  what  is  a  man  profited  if  he  be  ever 
so  safe  as  regards  the  whole  world  ?  If  he  be  cased  in 
impenetrable  armor,  or  shut  up  in  an  impregnable  fortress, 
if  he  go  down  to  threescore  and  ten  without  a  scratch  or 
a  bruise,  what  does  it  avail  if  his  soul  is  a  seat  of  unholy 
passions,  given  over  to  the  dominion  of  sin,  lost  to  God 
and  to  good  ?  Hence  the  promise  of  God's  protection  of 
the  soul  is  a  hint  that  we  need  that  protection.  It  carries 
with  it  the  exhortation,  *'  Keep  thy  heart  with  all  diligence, 
for  out  of  it  are  the  issues  of  life."  ' 

At  the  same  time,  it  is  true  that  outward  danger,  by 
making  us  feel  our  helplessness  and  throwing  us  upon 
God's  keeping,  has  a  tendency  to  encourage  that  faith  and 
prayer  and  watchfulness  which  are  the  indispensable  con- 
ditions of  both  spiritual'  safety  and  spiritual  tranquillity. 
Charles  Kingsley,  in  a  discourse  on  prayer,*  speaks  of 
the  fiict  that  prosperity,  ease  and  safety  often  tend  to 
draw  men  away  from  God.  They  find  the  world  so  well 
ordered  outwardly  that  it  seems  able  to  go  on  its  way 
without  a  God.  "  They  have,  themselves,  so  few  sorrows, 
that  they  never  feel  that  sense  of  helplessness,  of  danger, 
of  ignorance,  which  has  made  the  hearts  of  men  in  every 
age,  yearn  for  an  unseen  helper,  deliverer  and  teacher." 
And  then  he  goes  on  to  show  that  adversity  and  danger 
are  wholesome,  so  much  so  that,  "  according  to  the  testi- 

'  Proverbs  iv.  23.  '  Westminster  Sermons. 


2/6  Gates  mto  the  Psalm  Country. 

mony  of  history,  the  most  happy  and  successful  commu- 
nities have  been  those  who,  through  perpetual  danger  and 
struggle,  have  learned  in  tlxe  depth  to  cry  out  of  the  depth 
to  God  ;  to  lift  up  their  eyes  unto  the  Lord,  and  to  know 
that  their  help  comes  from  Him."  He  continues,  "  I 
know  a  village  down  in  the  far  west  where  the  one  hundred 
and  twenty-first  Psalm  was  a  favorite  and  more  than  a 
favorite.  Whenever  it  was  given  out  in  church  (and  the 
congregation  used  often  to  ask  for  it),  all  joined  in  sing- 
ing it  with  an  earnestness,  a  fervor,  a  passion  such  as  I 
never  heard  elsewhere  ;  such  as  showed  how  intensely 
they  felt  that  the  Psalm  was  true,  and  true  for  them.  Of 
all  congregational  singing  I  ever  heard,  never  have  I  heard 
any  so  touching  as  those  voices,  when  they  joined  in  the 
old  words  they  loved  so  well  : 

"  '  Sheltered  beneath  the  Almighty  wings 

Thou  shalt  securely  rest, 
Where  neither  sun  nor  moon  shall  thee 

By  day  or  night  molest. 
At  home,  abroad,  in  peace,  in  war, 

Thy  God  shall  thee  defend. 
Conduct  thee  through  life's  pilgrimage 

Safe  to  thy  journey's  end.' 

*'  Do  you  fancy  these  people  were  especially  comforta- 
ble, prosperous  folk,  who  had  no  sorrows  and  lived  safe 
from  all  danger,  and  therefore  knew  that  God  protected 
them  from  all  ill  ?  Nothing  less.  There  was  hardly  a 
man  who  joined  in  that  Psalm  but  knew  that  he  carried 
his  life  in  his  hand  from  year  to  year,  that  any  day  might 
see  him  a  corpse,  drowned  at  sea.  Hardly  a  woman  who 
sang  that  Psalm  but  had  lost  a  husband,  a  father,  a  brother 


The  Gate  to  the  Highlands.  277 

a  kiijsm&n,  drowned  at  sea.  A  sudden  shift  of  wind  might 
make,  as  I  knew  it  once  to  make,  sixty  widows  and 
orphans  in  a  single  night.  The  fishery  for  the  year  might 
fail.  The  young  men  would  go  out  on  voyages,  and  often 
never  come  back  again,  dying  far  from  home.  And  yet 
they  believed  that  God  preserved  them.  Surely  their 
faith  was  tried  if  ever  faith  was  tried.  But  as  surely  their 
faith  failed  not,  for,  if  1  may  so  say,  they  dared  not  let  it 
fail.  If  they  ceased  to  trust  God  what  had  they  to  trust 
in  ?  Without  trust  in  God  their  lives  would  have  been 
lives  of  doubt  and  terror,  forever  anxious  about  the  mor- 
row :  or  else  of  blind  recklessness  saying,  '  Let  us  eat 
and  drink,  for  to-morrow  we  die.'  Because  they  kept 
their  faith  in  God,  their  lives  were,  for  the  most  part,  lives 
of  hardy  and  hopeful  enterprise  ;  cheerful  always,  in  bad 
luck  as  in  good  ;  thankful  when  their  labors  were  blest  with 
success  ;  and  when  calamity  and  failure  came,  saying — '  I 
have  received  good  from  the  hand  of  the  Lord  and  shall 
I  not  receive  evil  ?  Though  He  slay  me,  yet  will  I  trust 
iri  Him."'> 

Thus,  as  we  gather  up  the  lessons  of  the  Psalm  on  which 
we  have  touched,  we  find  a  suggestion  of  our  own  help- 
lessness in  the  words  which  assure  us  of  divine  protec- 
tion :  we  have  the  positive  assurance  of  that  protection 
based  upon  God's  power  in  creation,  and  God's  wisdom 
and  love  as  shown  in  the  past  experience  of  His  people. 
We  are  made  to  see  that  as  our  chief  danger  is  spiritual, 
so  our  need  of  protection  is  constant,  and  that  none  but 
a  divine  Protector  can  insure  our  safety  ;  and  that,  in 

'  The  latter  part  of  the  extract  is  condensed. 


2/8  Gates  into  the  Psalm   Coitntjy. 

order  to  avail  ourselves  of  this  eternal  safeguard,  we 
must  live  within  its  compass,  and  not  think  that  we  can 
pass  our  time  at  our  own  pleasure,  and  in  the  place  of 
our  own  choosing,  and  then  claim  God's  protection  when 
emergencies  arise.  He  that  dwelleth  in  the  secret  place 
of  the  Most  High,  and  abides  under  the  shadow  of  the 
Almighty,  he  only  can  say  of  the  Lord — "  He  is  my  re- 
fuge and  my  fortress."  "  Because  thou  hast  made  the  Most 
High  thy  habitation,  there  shall  no  evil  befall  thee, 
neither  shall  any  plague  come  nigh  thy  dwelling.  Be- 
cause he  hath  set  his  love  upon  Me,  therefore  will  I  de- 
liver him."  '  Thus  all  the  pledges  and  assurances  of  the 
Psalm  grow  up  in  the  sphere  of  life  in  God.  It  is  a  close 
walk  with  God,  a  life  hidden  in  Him,  which  alone  can  in- 
terpret the  sweetness  of  these  pledges  and  make  them 
fully  available.  And,  farther,  we  see  that  for  this  help 
and  keeping  we  need  not  ascend  wearily  into  the  hills  of 
God  to  find  Him  out.  The  Word  is  nigh  us.  God  is  in 
the  midst  of  us,  adapting  Himself  to  our  low  estate,  com- 
ing down  to  the  plane  of  our  ignorance  and  weakness, 
His  heart  throbbing  with  such  pity  as  a  parent  feels  to- 
wards a  helpless  child,*  to  keep  us  by  His  mighty  power 
from  the  foes  which  would  destroy  our  life,  and  to  "  raise 
us  to  sit  in  heavenly  places  in  Christ  Jesus."  °  Oh,  how 
rich  in  comfort  is  this  thought  to  such  as  feel  their  spirit- 
ual danger  and  helplessness  ;  who  even  now,  it  may  be, 
are  lifting  up  their  eyes  unto  the  hills  for  help.  Cease 
considering  what  you  can  do  to  get  up  to  where  God  is, 
what  you  can  do  to  make  yourself  ready  for  God,  but  be 

'  Psalm  xci.  2,  9,  14.  ^  Psalm  ciii.  13.  ^  Ephesians  ii.  6. 


The  Gate  to  the  Highlands.  279 

rather  content  to  let  God  come  down  to  you,  just  as  you 
are,  and  do  in  you  and  for  you  what  needs  to  be  done.  You 
will  rise  only  as  He  shall  raise  you.  You  will  tread  the 
high  hills  of  His  peace  only  as  he  shall  carry  you  up  the 
steeps  in  His  arms,  even  as  a  lost  and  tired  lamb. 

And  we  have  need  too  to  learn  this  Psalm  by  heart  and 
to  ponder  it  well,  and  to  keep  it  by  us  for  daily  use  in 
daily  doing  and  burden-bearing.  How  much  disquiet 
these  times  beget  we  all  know ;  and  it  will  be  the  easiest 
thing  in  the  world  for  us  to  get  ourselves  into  such  a  state 
of  worry  and  uneasiness  and  fear,  as  that  life  shall  be  shorn 
of  all  its  peace.  Can  we  not  get  back  into  the  atmos- 
phere of  this  Psalm?  Is  it  not  possible  for  us  to  enter 
into  the  calm  which  encircles  that  pilgrim's  tent,  and  to 
catch  something  of  the  old  peace  which  filled  the  travel- 
lei-'s  heart  as  he  sat  in  the  evening  shadow,  and  felt  the 
cool  breath  coming  down  from  the  mountains  behind 
which  lay  the  city  of  God,  so  that  with  him  we  may  sing, 
"  My  help  cometh  from  the  Lord  who  made  heaven  and 
earth.  He  will  not  suffer  thy  foot  to  be  moved.  The 
Lord  is  thy  keeper.  The  Lord  shall  preserve  thy  going 
out  and  thy  coming  in  from  this  time  forth  and  even  for- 
evermore  "  ?  Is  it  not  possible,  I  say  ?  Do  we  believe 
the  word  of  the  living  God?  Do  we  believe  that  the 
Spirit  of  God  inspired  this  Psalm?  Do  we  believe  that 
God  wrote  it  as  the  legitimate  expression  of  His  children's 
confiding  faith  in  Him,  and  of  their  sweet  rest  in  His 
power  and  love  ?  Do  we  believe  this,  and  do  we  believe 
that  we  are  His  children  ?  Ah,  God  tries  our  faith  by 
such  questions  as  these.  Whatever  the  measure  of  our 
faith,  the  promise   is  sure  as  the  hills.     The  help  is  there 


28o  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

for  us  if  we  will  take  it.  We  may  have  the  rest.  "We  may 
go  in  and  out  assured  that  the  Lord  preserves  our  going 
out  and  our  coming  in,  and  will  do  so,  from  this  time 
forth.  Whether  our  fears  centre  in  personal  or  in  national 
troubles,  we  may  trust.  God  is  the  God  of  nations.  He 
is  wiser  and  stronger  than  men  ;  and  while  men  plot  and 
plan,  the  Keeper  of  Israel  slumbereth  not. 

"  Father,  beneath  Thy  shelteiuig  wing 
In  sweet  security  we  rest. 
And  fear  no  evil  earth  can  bring, 
In  life,  in  death,  supremely  blest. 

"  For  life  is  good  whose  tidal  flow 
The  motions  of  Thy  will  obeys ; 
And  death  is  good,  that  makes  us  know 
The  Love  Divine  that  all  things  sways. 

"And good  it  is  to  bear  the  cross. 

And  so  Thy  perfect  peace  to  win ; 

And  naught  is  ill,  nor  brings  us  loss, 

Nor  works  us  harm,  save  only  sin. 

"  Redeemed  from  this,  we  ask  no  more, 
But  trust  the  love  that  saves,  to  guide. 
The  grace  that  yields  so  rich  a  store 
Will  grant  us  all  we  need  beside." 


THE    GATE     TO     THE    HAR- 
VEST-FIELD. 


PSALM  CXXVI. 

(i)  When  Jehovah  brought  back  the  returned  of  Zion, 
We  were  like  unto  them  that  dream. 

(2)  Then  was  our  mouth  filled  with  laughter, 
And  our  tongue  with  songs  of  joy. 

(3)  Then  said  they  among  the  nations, 

"  Jehovah  hath  done  great  things  for  them." 

(4)  (Yea)  Jehovah  hath  done  great  things  for  us  ; 
(Therefore)  were  we  glad. 

(5)  Bring  back,  O  Jehovah,  our  captives. 
As  the  streams  in  the  South. 

(6)  They  that  sow  in  tears 
Shall  reap  with  songs  of  joy. 

(7)  He  may  go  weeping  as  he  goeth. 
Bearing  (his)  store  of  seed  ; 

(8)  He  shall  come,  he  shall  come  with  songs  of  joy. 
Bearing  his  sheaves. 


XVII. 

THE  GATE  TO  THE  HARVEST-FIELD. 

There  were  three  things  which  greatly  astonished  the 
Jewish  exiles  on  their  return  from  Babylon.  The  first  was 
the  capture  of  the  city  by  the  Medes  and  Persians. 
The  popular  feeling  of  amazement  is  reflected  in  the  vision 
of  Isaiah  portrayed  in  the  twenty-first  chapter  of  his  proph- 
ecy. 'From  his  watch-tower  he  beholds  the  vast  city  of 
Babylon  by  night,  its  lights  gleaming,  and  the  sound  of 
mad  revelry  rising  from  its  palaces.  Then  succeed  the  ap- 
parition of  armed  forms  stealing  through  the  streets,  fol- 
lowed by  the  cry,  "  Babylon  is  fallen,  and  all  the  graven 
images  of  her  gods  He  hath  broken  under  the  ground." 
Those  who  intelligently  read  this  prophecy  will  see  with 
what  wonder  the  captives  of  Judah  saw  the  great  empire 
of  the  East  give  way  before  the  comparatively  unknown 
tribes  of  Persia. 

The  second  source  of  wonder  was  the  escape  of  the  re- 
turning exiles  from  the  perils  of  the  journey.  This  Psalm, 
let  it  be  remembered,  belongs  to  the  time  after  the  first 
band  had  returned  from  Babylon  under  the  command  of 
Zcrubbabel.  The  journe}'  from  Babylon  to  Jerusalem  was 
one  which  the  best  equipped  host  might  not  accomplish 
williout  some  danger.  "The  prospect  of  crossing  that 
vast  desert  which  intervened  between  Chaldasa  and  Pal- 


284  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

estine,  was  one  which  filled  the  minds  of  the  exiles  with 
all  manner  of  terrors.  It  seemed  like  a  second  wandering 
in  the  desert  of  Sinai.  It  was  a  journey  of  nearly  four 
months  at  the  slow  rate  at  which  such  caravans  then  trav- 
elled. Unlike  the  wilderness  of  Sinai,  it  was  diversified 
by  no  towering  mountains,  no  delicious  palm  groves,  no 
gushing  springs.  A  hard  gravel  plain  from  the  moment 
they  left  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates  till  they  reached  the 
northern  extremity  of  Syria,  with  no  solace  except  the  oc- 
casional wells  and  walled  stations  ;  or,  if  their  passage  was 
in  the  spring,  the  natural  herbage  and  flowers  which  clothed 
the  arid  soil.  Ferocious  herds  of  Bedouin  robbers  then  as 
now  swept  the  whole  tract."* 

But  again,  in  the  vision  of  Isaiah,  we  see  revealed  the 
wonder  of  God's  love  and  power  in  safely  carrying  His  ran- 
somed ones  through  this  dangerous  journey.  Nay,  more  : 
the  exiled  band  is  not  to  return  in  straggling  meanness  as 
a  troop  of  broken-spirited  slaves.  Their  homeward  march 
is  to  be  rather  that  of  a  royal  procession.  They  are  the 
people  of  the  King  of  kings.  A  voice  as  of  a  herald  goes 
before  them,  "  Prepare  ye  the  way  of  the  Lord."  Their 
way  is  His  way  :  "  Make  straight  the  paths  in  the  desert, 
gather  the  stones  out  of  the  way."  No  fear  of  thirst,  or  of 
hunger,  or  of  dropping  down  by  the  way  through  weariness. 
"He  shall  feed  His  flock  like  a  shepherd.  He  shall  gather 
the  lambs  with  His  arm,  and  carry  them  in  His  bosom. 
He  will  open  rivers  in  high  places  and  fountains  in  the 
midst  of  the  valleys.  He  will  make  the  wilderness  a  pool 
of  water  and  the  dry  lands  springs  of  water."     No  fear  of 

'  Stanley,  Jewish  Church.     Vol.  iii. 


The  Gate  to  the  Harvest-Field.  285 

the  smiting  sun  in  the  shadeless  gravel  plain.  He  will 
"plant  in  the  wilderness  the  cedar,"  He  will  "set  in  the 
desert  the  fir  tree  and  the  pine  and  the  box  tree  together." 
No  fear  of  the  swoop  of  the  fierce  desert  tribes.  "The 
Lord  God  will  come  with  a  strong  hand."  The  people  is 
as  grass  that  withereth  before  the  breath  of  the  Lord.' 

The  third  thing  which  amazed  these  exiles  was,  that  they 
should  have  been  permitted  to  return  at  all.  How  could 
they  dream  that  Cyrus,  the  Persian,  would  acknowledge 
the  God  of  their  fathers  ?  Yea,  that  he  should  be  called 
by  Jehovah  himself,  His  "shepherd,"  °  His  "anointed  ser- 
vant," His  "right  hand,"  ^  and  that  his  heart  should  turn 
with  pity  and  favor  towards  those  thousands  of  captive 
Jews  whom  it  would  have  seemed  for  his  own  interest  to 
keep  in  bondage  ? 

When,  therefore,  the  first  band  of  exiles,  forty-two 
tliousand  in  number,  found  themselves  once  more  in  the 
city  of  their  fathers,  when  they  recalled  the  former  glories 
t)f  Jerusalem,  and  caught  glimpses  of  a  possible  glorious 
future,  a  restored  temple  and  worship,  a  flourishing  na- 
tional metropolis,  a  reinvigorated  national  life,  it  seemed 
loo  good  to  be  true.  In  the  language  of  our  Psalm  they 
were  "like  them  that  dream."  Their  mouth  was  filled 
with  laughter  and  their  tongue  with  singing.  They  recog- 
nized their  deliverance  with  all  its  marvels,  as  the  work  of 
Jehovah,  and  gave  Him  the  glory,  saying,  "The  Lord 
hath  done  great  things  for  us  whereof  we  are  glad."  Even 
the  heathen  for  once  refrained  from  scoflSng.  The  deliv- 
erance, the  return,  were  so  wonderful,  so  directly  in  the 


'  Isaiah  xl.,  xlL  '  Isaiah  xliv.  28.  ^  Isaiah  xlv.  i 


286  Gates  into  the  Psalm   Country. 

face  of  all  probability,  that  they  were  forced  to  acknowl- 
edge the  interposition  of  some  higher  power  ;  and  they, 
too.  took  up  the  current  saying,  "Jehovah  hath  done 
great  things  for  them." 

Yet  we  may  easily  imagine  that  the  occasion  was  not 
one  of  unmingled  laughter  or  singing.  They  had  returned 
to  their  home,  it  is  true,  but  it  was  to  find  it  in  ruins. 
The  streets  must  be  cleared,  the  temple  rebuilt,  the  wall 
restored  to  keep  out  the  plundering  hordes  of  Samaritans ; 
years  of  hard  toil  opened  before  them,  and  for  so  great 
work  their  numbers  seemed  small.  And  therefore  their 
minds  turned  naturally  back  to  Babylon,  where  so  many 
of  their  brethren  still  remained,  and  another  thought  arose, 
"Would  that  they  were  with  us.  How  our  hands  would 
be  strengthened  :  with  how  much  more  hope  and  cheer 
could  \ve  undertake  this  mighty  task."  And  this  thought 
now  pours  itself  out  in  prayer.  "  Turn  again  our  captiv- 
ity ;  bring  back,  O  Jehovah,  our  captives."  And  we  must 
not  fail  to  notice  the  beautiful  figure  in  v/hich  this  prayer 
is  couched.  "  Bring  back  our  captives,  O  Jehovah,  ai 
the  streams  in  the  South."  The  South  was  the  general 
term  for  that  plain  which  stretched  southward  from  Jeru- 
salem to  the  edge  of  the  Arabian  desert.  In  the  heats 
of  summer  it  lies  parched  and  barren,  the  water-courses 
dry,  not  the  smallest  rill  trickling  over  the  hot  stones, 
every  remnant  of  vegetation  withered.  But  when-  the 
winter  snows  begin  to  dissolve  upon  the  mountains  and 
the  spring  rains  to  fall,  soon  the  parched  ground  becomes 
a  pool.  The  channels  are  filled,  the  streams,  in  an  incredi- 
bly short  time,  convert  the  wilderness  into  a  fruitful  field. 
Thus  the   exiles  pray  that   their   brethren   may  return  as 


The  Gate  to  the  Harvest-Field.  287 

the  streams  flow  down  to  the  South  country  in  the  spring. 
"  Our  land,  O  Lord,  is  barren.  Jerusalem  is  a  waste  and 
a  desolation.  Our  little  band  is  but  as  a  tiny  rill  in  the 
desert,  not  enough  to  make  thy  heritage  blossom.  Turn 
back  our  captives  even  as  the  streams  in  the  South.  Flood 
our  land  with  men,  so  shall  the  wilderness  and  the  soli- 
tary places  be  glad,  and  the  desert  shall  rejoice." 

But  with  the  prayer  is  joined,  as  there  ought  to  be  with 
all  prayer,  an  expression  of  faith.  They  do  not  know 
that  Jehovah  will  answer  this  particular  request.  He  may 
make  them  wait  long  for  the  needed  reinforcements,  but 
they  are  sure  that  this  painful  waiting  and  working  will 
have  a  joyful  issue  at  last.  And  this  thought,  too,  is  con- 
veyed under  a  beautiful  figure,  the  lesson  of  which  will 
occupy  the  remainder  of  our  study  upon  this  Psalm. 
"  They  that  sow  in  tears  shall  reap  in  joy.  He  that  goeth 
forth  and  weepeth,  bearing  precious  seed,  shall  doubtless 
come  again  with  rejoicing  bringing  his  sheaves  with 
him." 

The  weeping  sower  may  seem  to  us  a  conception  pe- 
culiar to  the  exaggerated  style  of  Oriental  imagery  :  and 
yet  it  is  not  so  far  from  the  literal  fact  as  we  might  at  first 
suppose,  especially  when  we  remember  that  the  Oriental 
is  more  demonstrative  in  the  expression  of  his  feelings 
than  the  cooler  man  of  the  West.  Many  things  might 
conspire  to  send  the  Eastern  husbandman  to  his  field  in 
tears.  Sometimes,  as  is  well  known,  the  sujjply  of  grain 
is  so  scanty,  that  to  use  it  for  sowing  is  almost  to  take  the 
bread  out  of  the  children's  mouths;  and  it  would  not  be 
hard  to  imagine  even  a  New  England  farmer  going  forth 
to  his  sowing  with   moistened   eyes,  if  he   knew   that  his 


288  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

seed-bag  contained  well  nigh  the  last  bushel  of  corn  in 
the  house,  and  that  in  a  time  of  general  scarcity.  But 
apart  from  the  literal  accuracy  of  the  figure,  there  would 
be  very  much  to  make  the  Eastern  farmer's  seed-time  a 
time  of  sorrow  and  weariness  and  danger.  For  instance, 
his  life  would  not  be  absolutely  secure.  He  might  have 
to  go  six  or  seven  miles  from  his  village  to  his  field,  and 
so  much  nearer  the  desert  border,  from  which  a  robber 
band  could  easily  make  him  their  prey,  or  take  his  life, 
and  carry  off  or  scatter  the  precious  handfuls  of  seed  on 
which  the  life  of  his  household  depended.  So  it  was  with 
the  servants  of  Job  who  were  ploughing  when  the  Sabae- 
ans  fell  upon  them.* 

But  what  a  change  reveals  itself  in  the  Psalmist's 
next  sentence.  As  with  the  slide  of  a  magic  lantern, 
he  puts  beside  this  picture  of  the  sad-faced  sower 
another  picture  of  the  gladness  of  harvest.  "  The  valleys 
stand  thick  with  corn."  There  are  no  tears  now,  but 
only  the  shouting  and  the  happy  faces  of  the  reapers 
as  they  gather  the  full  ears.  "  They  that  sow  in  tears 
shall  reap  in  joy." 

It  is  the  peculiarity  of  the  Bible  that,  while  all  its  inci- 
dents have  their  local  coloring,  and  their  lesson  for  their 
own.  time,  they  have  no  less  their  teaching  for  later  times, 
and  for  quite  different  circumstances.  No  two  things 
could  be  apparently  farther  apart  than  our  condition  to-day 
and  that  of  the  poor  Jewish  exiles  just  returned  to  then 
desolate  city  :  yet  this  song  is  ours  no  less  than  theirs, 
and  that  from  the  fact  that  under  its  local  coloring  and 

'  Job  i.  15. 


The  Gate  to  the  Harvest-Field.  289 

imagery  it  carries  certain  universal  human  truths  to  which 
our  own  experience  responds,  and  on  which  our  faith  and 
hope  lay  hold. 

All  human  life  as  related  to  the  larger  life  of  eternity  is 
a  sowing-time  ;  and  largely  a  sowing-time  of  tears.  Life 
is  a  season  of  preparatory  discipline  for  immortality;  and 
the  experience  tlirough  which  this  discipline  is  perfected 
is  often  severe. 

But  it  is  not  of  this  that  I  wish  to  speak,  so  much  as 
of  the  sowing  and  reaping  within  the  compass  of  our 
earthly  life  ;  for  it  is  very  evident  that  the  different  parts 
of  our  life  stand  thus  related  to  one  another  :  the  earlier  to 
the  later,  the  time  of  preparation  to  the  time  of  fruition. 

And  we  may  lay  it  down  as  a  general  law  that  the  sow- 
ing-time, whether  it  be  in  agriculture,  or  in  learning,  or  in 
morals,  or  in  experience,  is  a  hard,  painful,  uncomfortable 
time ;  often  a  time  of  risk  and  danger. 

For  instance,  take  our  early  education.  I  suspect 
there  is  a  good  deal  of  mere  sentiment  in  the  wishing  to 
be  boys  again,  and  longing  for  the  happy  school-days.  No 
doubt  there  were  certain  elements  of  happiness  peculiar 
to  those  days,  especially  our  freedom  from  real  care  and 
responsibility,  which  do  not  enter  into  our  present  life  ; 
but  the  process  of  breaking  up  our  boyish  crudity,  of  tam- 
ing our  childish  will,, of  pricking  our  conceit,  was  some- 
thing we  should  not  care  to  go  through  again.  The  re- 
straints of  school,  the  turning  away  from  the  long,  bright 
summer  days,  from  the  delights  of  wood  and  stream,  to  the 
desk  and  the  book  and  the  slate,  were  not  unlike  sowing 
in  tears.  We  found  it  no  easy  thing  to  learn  well  and  thor- 
oughly.    Lessons  were  often  hard,  and  teachers  severe, 


290  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

and  the  open  page  of  arithmetic  or  grammar  was  often  wet 
with  childish  tears. 

Or  take  tlie  )'Oung  man's  first  essay  in  Ufe  :  his  emer- 
gence from  the  charmed  circle  of  college,  and  home,  and 
admiring  friends,  upon  the  first  square  contact  with  men, 
as  a  man  :  the  getting  established  in  business  or  in  a  pro- 
fession :  how  many  the  wounds  to  his  pride  :  what  revela- 
tions of  weakness  where  he  thought  himself  strongest  : 
what  a  letting  down  of  the  scale  at  which  he  had  rated 
his  own  talent :  what  struggles  with  established  success 
before  he  reaps  the  fruit  of  patient  industry  and  of  con- 
firmed reputation.     It  is  the  sowing-time  of  tears. 

And  no  less  does  the  truth  hold  in  the  religious  life. 
Can  the  beginnings  of  that  life  be  better  described  than  as  a 
sowing  in  tears  ?  What  else  is  the  dawn  of  self-knowledge  ? 
What  else  the  awakened  sense  of  sin  and  of  absence  from 
God  ?  What  was  it  when  the  prodigal  awoke  from  his 
mad  dream  of  pleasure  to  find  the  roses  faded  and  the  cup 
drained,  and  nothing  left  but  the  husks  and  the  swine  ? 
The  "  Father  I  have  sinned,"  comes  before  the  robe  and 
the  ring:  the  "  O  wretched  man  that  I  am,'"  before  the 
"peace  with  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."'-^ 

And  in  this  line  of  thought,  it  is  interesting  to  remem- 
ber that  this  very  Psalm  may  have  been  more  than  once 
upon  the  lips  of  the  Son  of  Man  as  H,e  journeyed  with  the 
pilgrim  bands  to  the  Holy  City.  "They  that  sow  in  tears 
shall  reap  in  joy."  What  was  it  but  the  very  truth  which 
He  Himself  uttered  later,  aye,  and  illustrated  too,"  Except 
a  corn  of  wheat  fall  into  the  ground  and  die  it  abideth 

1  Romans  vii.  24.  °  Romans  v.  i. 


The  Gate  to  the  Harvest-Field.  291 

alone  :  but  if  it  die,  it  bringeth  forth  much  fruit.  "  '  The 
process  by  which  He  reached  the  height  to  which  God 
hath  exalted  Him,  the  harvest  of  love  and  worship  and 
ministry  which  He  garners  daily  from  the  world's  heart  and 
life,  was  the  emptying  Himself,  and  taking  the  form  of  a 
servant,  and  becoming  obedient  unto  the  death  of  the 
cross  ;"  and  he  who  attains  Christian  manhood  attains  it  in 
the  same  way.  He  who  is  chief  among  men,  is  so  through 
service,  service  which  has  no  taint  of  self  in  it :  and  self- 
forgetful  service  is  not  learned  easily  nor  without  tears. 
God  makes  us  men  in  Christ  Jesus  by  hard  blows  at  self, 
by  sorrows  which  cut  to  the  quick,  by  losses  which  make 
us  feel  that  nothing  but  God  is  left,  which  is  just  what  He 
wants  us  to  feel.  It  is  sowing  for  a  rich  harvest,  but  none 
the  less  sowing  in  tears. 

Now,  in  the  Psalm,  the  two  pictures  of  the  weeping 
sower  and  of  the  joyful  reaper  are  placed  side  by  side  :  but 
in  fact,  as  we  all  know,  a  large  and  thickly  crowded  inter- 
val  lies  between  them  :  and  it  is  in  this  interval  that  we  shall 
find  the  great  practical  lesson  for  our  immediate  use.  And 
the  lesson  is  this ;  simple  steadfastness,  patience  and 
hopefulness  all  through  the  tearful  sowing-time.  That  joy- 
ful harvest  scene  means  that  the  sower  did  not  let  his 
tears  bhnd  his  eyes  to  the  duty  that  lay  before  him.  It 
was  a  bitter  .day  when  he  went  out  with  the  seed  folded 
in  his  robe  :  but  the  furrows  lay  before  him,  and  the  seed 
must  be  sown,  and  he  went  faithfully  over  every  foot  of 
the  ground,  promising  or  unpromising,  and  gave  and  did 
his  best.      And  that  is  the  lesson,  very  easy  to  stat-e,  but 

'  Jolin  xii.  24.  '  Philippians  ii.  7-9. 


292  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

very,  very  hard  to  practise,  which  you  and  I  must  carry 
out  in  our  sowing-fields  if  we  ever  reap  a  harvest.  If  w-e 
can  only  get  it  rooted  in  our  minds  that  the  tears,  and  the 
barrenness,  and  the  lack  of  promise,  and  the  hard  toil  and 
drudgery,  and  the  present  disappointment,  mean  joyful 
reaping  by  and  by,  that  these  are  really  God's  ways  to 
a  harvest,  we  shall  have  gained  very  much.  For  that  is 
the  simple  truth  ;  but  then  it  is  a  truth  which  becomes 
realized  in  fact  only  as  we  accept  God's  meaning  in  it,  and 
work  through  the  barrenness  and  the  drudgery  with  God, 
towards  the  fulfilment  of  God!  s  intent  :  only  as  we  accept 
the  corrective  hints  which  our  discipline  gives,  enter  and 
follow  out  to  the  end  each  line  of  duty  on  which  it  puts 
us,  not  despairing  of  ourselves,  nor  of  our  work,  nor  of 
God  and  Heaven,  not  wasting  time  in  tears  over  the 
hardness  of  the  soil  or  the  scantiness  of  the  seed,  not  try- 
ing to  get  round  our  allotted  experience  by  some  by-path, 
but  going  straight  through  it  from  end  to  end.  There  are 
times  in  battle  when  an  army  cannot  make  a  flank  move- 
ment, but  must  pierce  the  centre  of  the  enemy  if  it  win  the 
day  :  and  in  the  battle  of  life  there  are  no  flank  move- 
ments :  the  way  to  victory  lies  through  the  centre  every 
time.  Sorrow,  discipline,  hard  work  have  got  to  be  borne, 
not  evaded,  if  Christ's  soldier  is  ever  to  win  promotion. 
Notice  the  way  in  which  Paul  puts  that  fact  in  those  well- 
known  words  at  the  conclusion  of  the  eighth  chapter  of 
Romans :  "  Who  shall  separate  us  from  the  love  of 
Christ  ?  "  Shall  tribulation,  distress,  persecution,  famine, 
nakedness,  peril,  sword,  the  being  counted  as  sheep  for 
the  slaughter  ?  "  Nay,"  he  replies,  "  in  all  these  things 
we  are   more  than  conquerors."     There  is  no  shirking 


TJic  Gate  to  the  Harvest-Field.  293 

them.  We  take  the  peril  and  the  nakedness  and  the 
famine,  and  in  the  very  midst  of  them  we  conquer. 

Thus,  then,  the  final  issue  of  these  times  of  preparation 
and  discipline  is  joy.  When  a  life  has  passed  tlirough 
God's  crucible,  and  the  fiery  blast  has  purged  away  its 
dross,  and  God's  coining  press  has  struck  it,  it  comes  forth 
with  the  iiiiage  and  superscription  of  the  Great  King,  and 
passes  into  the  world's  hands  as  current  coin  of  solid  gold. 
What  true  man  asks  for  any  higher  joy  than  that  of  en- 
riching, his  race  in  that  which  makes  it  truly  joyful  ? 

"  He  that  goeth  forth  weeping  and  bearing  precious 
seed  shall  doubtless  (how  positive  the  promise  is)  come 
again  with  rejoicing,  bringing  his  sheaves  \vith  him." 
There  have  been  times  in  our  own  lives  when  we  have 
gone  forth  to  this  sowing,  hardly  able  to  see  the  furrows 
for  our  tears  :  when  we  have  gone  up  and  down  the  field, 
sowing  with  a  trembling  hand,  and  crying  and  cutting  our- 
selves with  stones.  It  looked  little  Hke  sheaves  then  : 
little  like  sheaves  when  the  blight  had  passed  over  the 
household  and  withered  the  sweetest  and  best  ;  little  like 
joyful  harvest  when  bread  was  hard  to  win,  and  financial 
disaster  had  made  the  heritage  like  the  dry  plains  of  the 
South,  and  slander  was  darting  fiery  breaths  at  our  good 
name.  Ikit  those  sorrowful  sowing  days  have  blossomed 
out  into  power  and  sweetness  in  these  later'  years.  Did 
you  ever  go  into  the  woods  late  in  the  autumn,  on  a  day 
of  howling  wind  and  driving  rain,  and  did  you  ever  see  a 
drearier  spectacle  or  hear  drearier  sounds  ?  The  sough 
and  the  rush  of  the  wind  through  the  almost  bare  branches, 
the  drip,  drip,  of  the  rain  upon  the  masses  of  withered 
leaves,  the  air  tilled  wilii  flying  leaves  fluttering  down  intc 


294  Gates  into  the  Psalin  Country. 

the  gloom  of  the  forest  as  into  a  grave,  the  deHcate  colors 
of  trunk  and  moss  all  changed  and  stained  and  blended  by 
the  soaking  of  the  rain,  how  hard  to  believe  that  that  dreari- 
ness has  any  relation  to  the  beauty  of  the  summer  forest. 
And  yet  we  know  that  it  is  just  that  wind  which  is  rocking 
the  trees  and  howling  so  dismally,  just  that  streaming  rain 
and  those  rotting  leaves  which  will  help  to  clothe  the  forest 
trees  next  year  with  verdure,  and  to  make  the  woods  sing 
for  joy  and  pulsate  with  life.  So  you  are  better  and  purer 
and  stronger  men  and  women  to-day  for  the  tears  and  the 
sighing  and  the  desolation.  You  know  and  the  world  knows 
that  your  life  is  richer,  better  poised,  more  trustful,  less 
selfish,  more  detached  from  the  things  of  sense,  that  its 
whole  atmosphere  is  somehow  purer  and  more  vitalizing. 

Or  take  the  work  God  gives  us  :  in  the  family  for  exam- 
ple. Those  children,  how  we  cherish  them  !  Never  did 
sower  wrap  the  last  handful  of  seed  more  anxiously  in  his 
robe  than  we  fold  those  precious  ones  in  our  heart.  But 
O  how  anxious  the  sowing  !  What  daily  cares  for  their  men- 
tal and  moral  culture  !  What  anxious  hours  over  their  way- 
wardness !  But  there  is  a  picture  in  the  next  Psalm  which 
may  put  heart  into  us  in  some  hours  of  this  tearful  sowing- 
time  :  the  picture  of  the  father  surrounded  by  his  manly 
sons  standing  in  the  gate  of  the  city  in  controversy  with 
his  adversaries,  defended  by  their  strength,  and  aided  by 
their  counsels.  "  Happy  is  the  man  that  hath  his  quiver 
full  of  them  :  they  shall  not  be  ashamed,  but  they  shall 
speak  with  the  enemies  in  the  gate."  ' 

And  this  leads  to  the  truth  that  we  must  learn  to  look 

'  Psahii  cxxvii.  5. 


77;!^  Gate  to  the  Harvest-Field.  295 

for  the  fulfilment  of  the  promise  of  joyful  reaping  in  othei 
lives  than  our  own.  I  mean  just  this  ;  that  a  servant  of 
God  is  to  undertake  his  work  with  the  clear  understand- 
ing that  he  may  not,  personally,  during  his  own  life,  reap 
the  fruits  of  it.  He  must  sow  the  seed  in  view  of  the  pos- 
sibility that  the  reapers  may  go  to  and  fro  over  his  giave 
to  gather  the  harvest.  And  he  must  farther  learn  to  re- 
joice in  their  reaping  as  his  own  :  to  feel  that  if  he  do 
not  gather  an  ear  with  his  own  hand,  he  shall  reap  just  the 
same  in  the  harvest  which  other  hands  gather.  The  best 
work  which  is  being  done  for  the  world  is  the  work  which 
makes  the  least  noise.  The  forces  which  are  at  work  to 
move  society  most  profoundly  and  to  revolutionize  it  most 
thoroughly  are  those  of  which  the  general  public  is  not 
conscious.  And  the  man  who  joins  forces  with  that  kind 
of  sowing,  need  not  be  surprised  if  it  be  forbidden  his  feet 
to  tread  among  the  standing  corn.  Nevertheless  he  shall 
rea}>.  There  is  a  passage  in  the  history  of  Isaiah '  which 
always  moves  me  deeply.  God  revealed  Himself  to  him 
in  a  vision.  He  saw  the  Lord  sitting  upon  a  throne.  Ho 
heard  the  seraphim  cry  "  Holy,  Holy,  Holy  is  the  Lord  of 
Hosts  !  "  He  saw  the  posts  of  the  door  move  at  the  voice 
of  Him  that  cried,  and  before  that  glory  he  felt  himself 
undone,  and  of  unclean  lips.  Then  God  touched  his  lips 
with  a  coal  from  the  altar,  and  purified  and  consecrated 
Him  to  bear  His  message,  and  then  He  told  him  that  the 
people  would  not  hear  nor  understand  him.  That  an- 
ointed prophet,  tlie  grandest  spirit  that  ever  touched  the 
strings  of  the  prophetic  harp,  should  preach  to  dull  ears  and 

'  Isaiali  vi. 


296  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Coimtry. 

to  hard  hearts.  None  the  less  was  he  to  sow  :  the  reap- 
ing would  come  by  and  by.  A  long  interval  stretched 
between  seed-time  and  harvest,  filled  with  wasted  cities, 
and  houses  without  man,  and  desolate  lands,  but  the  word 
of  the  Lord  would  bear  fruit  in  His  own  time  in  repentance 
and  submission.  Meantime  the  prophet  was  to  deliver 
his  message  without  what  men  call  success.  He  was  to 
draw  his  inspiration  from  God,  not  from  success.  Nay, 
did  not  a  greater  than  Isaiah  share  the  same  lot?  Who 
was  it  that  said,  "  Ye  will  not  come  unto  me  that  ye  might 
have  hfe  ! "  '  "  How  often  would  I  have  gathered  you  and 
ye  would  not  "  ?  ^  Was  it  not  He  who  said — "  Herein  is 
that  saying  true,  one  soweth  and  another  reapeth"  ?' 

The  thought  of  the  Psalm  is  rich  in  suggestions  to  us. 
In  our  own  life,  in  the  condition  of  society,  in  the  aspects 
of  the  times,  both  civil  and  religious,  there  is  much  that 
savors  of  the  tearful  sowing-time.  There  is  but  one  thing 
for  us  to  do  ;  and  that  is  to  take  up  our  seed,  and  in  God's 
strength  and  with  God's  good  cheer  in  our  hearts,  go 
forth  to  the  sowing,  be  the  ground  good  or  stony,  be  the 
prospect  of  harvest  never  so  remote. 

The  way  to  the  harvest  lies  straight  through  the  thickest 
of  these  trials  and  discouragements.  We  shall  reap,  only 
as  we  shall  resolutely  take  up  our  lot,  make  the  most  and 
best  of  our  position,  squarely  face  our  responsibilities, 
let  the  full  pressure  of  our  burdens  come  down  on  our 
shoulders,  and  work  on  for  Christ's  sake,  whether  men 
will  hear  or  forbear.  Not  in  spite  of  these,  but  by  means 
of  these  the  harvest  is  to  come  ;  and  if  we  shun  the  weep- 
ing we  shall  miss  the  reaping. 

'  John  V.  40.  '  ^  Matthew  xxiii.  37.  ^  John  iv.  37 


THE  GATE  OF  THE  CARAVAN; 
OR,  THE  PILGRIM  PSALMS. 


XVIII. 

THE   GATE   OF   THE   CARAVAN;    OR, 
THE   PH.GRIM   PSALMS. 

The  title  Pilgrim  Psalms  is  applied  to  the  fifteen 
Psalms  from  the  one  hundred  and  twentieth  to  the 
one  hundred  and  thirty-fourth.  This  is  not  one  of  the  five 
parts  or  books  into  which  the  Hebrew  Psalter  is  divided  ; ' 
but  forms  one  of  two  groups  in  the  fifth  book  (the  other 
group  being  the  Hallelujah  Psalms),  each  of  which  seems 
to  have  been,  originally,  a  distinct  hymn  book  or  lit- 
urgy. * 

These  fifteen  Psalms  are  styled  "  Songs  of  Degrees  :" 
"Songs  of  Ascents  :  "  Songs  of  the  Goings  Up."  The 
meaning  of  this  title  is  a  subject  of  much  dispute,  and  the 
following  are  the  principal  views.  First, — That  the  title  is 
given  from  their  peculiar  rhythmical  structure  :  a  kind  of 
step  rhythm,  consisting  in  the  last  clause  of  a  verse  carry- 
ing forward  a  thought  or  an  expression  into  the  next 
verse  ;  where  it  has  another  turn  given  to  it,  is  expanded, 
or  receives  something  added  to  it.  Take,  for  example, 
the  one  hundred  and  twenty-first  Psalm.  "  I  lift  my  eyes 
to  the  hills.  From  whence  shall  help  come  to  me  ?  "  The 
second  verse  carries  on  the  thought  of  help : — "  My  help 

M.-xIi.,  xlii.-lxxii.,  Ixxiii.-lxxxix.,  xc.-cvi.,  evil,  cl. 
'  Perowne. 


300  Gates  into  the  Psalm   Country. 

comes  from  the  Lord, — the  Creator  of  Heaven  and  Earth." 
The  third  verse  adds  the  thought  of  Confirmei'  and  Keep- 
er to  that  of  Creator.  "  He  will  not  suffer  thy  foot  to 
be  moved.  He  that  keepeth  thee  will  not  slumber." 
Then  the  fifth  verse  carries  on  the  thought  of  the  Keeper 
and  of  the  sleeplessness ;  adding  the  thought  of  the 
nation's  keeper  to  that  of  the  keeper  of  the  iiidividual. 
"  Behold  the  Keeper  of  Israel  sleeps  not  and  slumbers 
not." 

The  objection  to  this  explanation  is  that,  while  each  of 
these  Psalms  has  the  title — "  A  Song  of  Degrees,"  this 
rhythmical  structure  is  not  common  to  all  the  Psalms  ; 
which,  if  the  hypothesis  were  correct,  must  have  been  the 
case.  It  does  not  occur,  for  instance,  in  the  one  hundred 
and  twenty-seventh,  one  hundred  and  twenty-eighth,  one 
hundred  and  thirty-first,  and  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
second.  Hengstenberg  says  it  does  not  occur  even  once 
throughout,  in  any  one  of  these  Psalms,  and  that  the  one 
hundred  and  twenty-first  is  the  only  one  in  which  it  is  at 
all  prominent.  Moreover,  we  are  entitled  to  expect  that, 
as  they  have  certain  common  characteristics,  the  title  which 
they  have  in  common  should  furnish  the  key  to  these,  which 
this  title  does  not.  "The  remaining  peculiarities  of  these 
Psalms,"  as  the  same  commentator  remarks,  "can  by 
no  means  be  considered  as  flowing  from  the  one  which, 
according  to  this  explanation,  is  indicated  in  the  title." 
Once  more,  the  structure  is  not  peculiar  to  these  Psalms, 
but  may  be  found  in  the  twenty-ninth  Psalm,  in  certain 
portions  of  Isaiah,'  and  in  the  song  of  Deborah.^ 

'  xvii.  12;  xxvi.  5.  ^  Judges  v. 


The  Gate  of  the  Caravan.  301 

The  second  explanation  is  suggested  in  the  name  "  step- 
songs."  According  to  this,  these  fifteen  Psalms  were 
sung  on  the  fifteen  steps  in  the  temple,  leading  from  the 
court  of  the  men  to  the  .court  of  the  women.  This  ex- 
planation is  based  upon  a  passage  of  the  Talmud,  which, 
however,  only  compares  the  fifteen  Psalms  to  fifteen  steps, 
and  gives  elsewhere  a  different  explanation  of  the  title. 
It  is  due  moreover  to  later  Jewish  expositors,  and  is  fanci- 
ful, although  Hengstenberg's  objection  that  such  Psalms 
as  the  one  hundred  and  twenty-first  and  one  hundred 
and  twenty-second  could  not  have  been  appropriately 
sung  in  the  temple,  is  very  far  from  being  decisive  as  he 
says  it  is ;  since  the  latter,  at  least,  might  very  appro- 
priately have  been  sung  under  such  circumstances. 

According  to  the  third  explanation,  the  fifteen  Psalms 
are  songs  of  the  going  up  from  Babylon  ;  that  is,  songs 
sung  by  the  Jewish  exiles  on  tlieir  return  from  the  captiv- 
ity. The  passage  relied  upon  for  this  explanation,  is 
the  ninth  verse  of  the  seventh  chapter  of  Ezra.  "  For 
upon  the  first  day  of  the  first  month,  began  he  (Ezra 
and  his  company)  to  go  up  from  Babylon."  This  has 
more  in  its  favor  than  the  others.  The  contents  of 
most  of  the  Psalms  would  adapt  themselves  to  it ;  but 
against  it  is  urged  the  use  of  the  plural  in  the  titles  of 
the  Psalms  ; — "  Songs  of  goings  ttp  ;  " — while,  on  the 
other  supposition,  it  would  be  "  songs  of  the  going  up  ;  " 
— a  great  national  crisis  being  distinctly  specified.  Ten  of 
the  fifteen  Psalms,  moreover,  make  no  allusion  to  the  con- 
dition of  captives.  It  is  also  urged  in  0])position  that, 
according  to  this  explanation,  the  titles  of  the  four  Psalma 
attributed  to   David,  and  of  the  one  attributed  to  Solo- 


302  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

mon,  would  give  false  information  :  but  in  order  to  make 
this  argument  of  any  weight,  the  question  of  the  Davidic 
and  Solomonic  authorship  of  these  five  Psalms  must  first 
be  settled ;  which  is  far  from  being  the  case. 

We  come  now  to  a  fourth  explanation,  which  seems  to 
meet  more  of  the  conditions  of  the  question  than  any 
other ;  namely,  that  these  songs  derived  their  title  from 
being  sung  by  the  pilgrim  caravans  in  their  annual  jour- 
neys to  Jerusalem  to  present  themselves  before  the  Lord. 
*'  Thrice  every  year,  at  the  beginning  and  at  the  close  of 
the  wheat  harvest,  and  again,  when  the  grapes  were 
gathered  and  the  wine  made, — every  son  of  the  law 
had  to  appear  before  God."  '  That  the  caravans 
went  up  with  singing,  appears  from  Isaiah.''  "  Ye  shall 
have  a  song  as  in  the  night  when  a  holy  solemnity  is 
kept,  and  gladness  of  heart  as  when  one  goeth  with  a 
pipe  to  come  into  the  mountain  of  the  Lord,  to  the 
Mighty  One  of  Israel."  The  word  to  "go  np"  is  the 
usual  expression  for  these  festival  journeys.  The  use 
of  the  article — '■^  the  goings  up," — indicates  the  ordinary 
journeys  yearly  repeated.  All  other  journeys  to  Jeru- 
salem would  have  needed  some  expression  added  to 
define  them.  The  plural — "goings  up," — indicates 
something  of  frequent  recurrence  :  and,  finally,  the  con- 
tents of  several  of  the  Psalms,  as  for  instance,  the  one 
hundred  and  twenty-first,  one  hundred  and  twenty-second, 
and  one  hundred  thirty-fourth,  show  that  they  must  have 
been  used  for  this  purpose,  as  we  shall  presently  see. 

The  authorship  of  these  fifteen  Psalms,  and  the  time  of 

'  Cox,  "  Pilgrim  Psalms."  *  xxx.  29. 


The  Gate  of  the  Caravan.  303 

their  arrangement,  are  of  course  matters  of  conjecture. 
Canon  Perowne  says  that  this  collection  in  its  present 
form  must  have -been  made  after  the  return  from  Babylon  ; 
some  of  the  songs  containing  manifest  allusions  to  the 
captivity,  as  still  fresh  in  the  recollection  of  the  writers, 
Hengstenberg's  hypothesis  agrees  with  this  as  to  time,  and 
assumes  that  the  four  Psalms  ascribed  to  David,'  and  the 
one  ascribed  to  Solomon,-  sung  by  the  people  in  their 
annual  journey  before  the  captivity,  were  made  the  basis 
of  a  whole  series  or  system,  designed  for  the  same  use,  by 
an  inspired  writer  after  the  restoration,  who  added  ten 
Psalms  of  his  own. 

However  we  may  settle  such  critical  questions,  it  re- 
mains true  that  these  Psalms  are  among  the  most  charm- 
ing portions  of  the  Psalter,  full  of  deep  and  tender  feel- 
ing, simple  and  graceful  in  structure,  so  that  a  Spanish 
writer,  cited  by  several  commentators,  has  said  that  this 
collection  is  to  the  rest  of  the  Psalms  what  Paradise  was 
to  the  world  at  its  first  creation. 

It  now  remains  to  show  how  the  title  Pilgrim  Psalms  is 
borne  out  in  the  Psalms  themselves.  But  at  the  outset 
we  stumble  upon  something  which  might  reasonably  damp 
any  enthusiasm  called  out  by  our  Spanish  commenta- 
tor's praise.  As  to  the  first  of  these  Psalms,  there  is, 
apparently,  as  much  reason  for  calling  it  an  imprecatory 
Psalm,  as  a  pilgrim  Psalm.  To  quote  the  words  of  a 
French  writer,'  "  It  may  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  most 
obscure  of  the  whole  Psalter.     The  ideas  are  faintly  indi- 

'  cxxii.,  cxxiv.,  cxxxi.,  cxxxiii.  '  cxxvii. 

^  Reuss,  cited  by  Perowne. 


304  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

cated,  the  imagery  is  obscure,  and  the  historical  allusions 
are  as  good  as  enigmas."  What  a  song  about  lying  lips 
and  the  fate  of  slanderers,  and  a  lame-nt  at  being  com- 
pelled to  dwell  amid  barbarous  tribes,  can  have  to  do  with 
a  joyful  pilgrimage,  it  is  not  easy  to  determine.  As  to 
the  historical  references,  some  have  supposed  that  the 
Psalmist  pictures  the  heathen  among  whom  he  dwells  in 
exile ;  others,  the  wild  tribes  with  whom  no  treaty  can  be 
kept,  and  by  whom  he  is  beset  on  his  way  back  from  Baby- 
lon to  Palestine  :  others,  the  Samaritans  who  interfered 
with  the  rebuilding  of  the  temple.  Mr.  Cox,  who  is  always 
fresh,  ingenious  and  suggestive,  calls  this  "  the  song  of 
the  start."  It  is  the  utterance  of  a  man  smarting  under 
calumny,  unable  to  be  at  peace  with  his  neighbors,  people 
whom  he  can  compare  only  to  the  barbarous  Moschi, 
haunting  the  skirts  of  the  Caucasus,  or  the  Arabian 
hordes  of  Kedar — types  of  "  implacable  cruelty."  From 
these  he  cries  for  deliverance.  "  Deliver  my  soul  from 
lying  lips."  On  these  he  denounces  Divine  vengeance, 
like  sharpened  arrows  of  a  hero's  bow,  or  fire  kindled  with 
juniper  coals,  which  retain  their  heat  for  a  long  time.  Now 
the  Hebrew  pilgrim,  according  to  our  commentator,  jeal- 
ous of  his  reputation,  and  conscious  of  the  stain  which 
lying  lips  would  bring  upon  it,  might  find  in  this  song, 
when  he  was  about  to  leave  home,  an  expression  of  his 
feeling  that  he  was  leaving  his  reputation  at  the  mercy  of 
slanderers  during  his  absence  :  or  an  expression  of  his 
conscientious  fear  lest,  on  the  journey,  in  the  gossip  of 
the  caravan,  he  might  be  tempted  to  speak  unadvisedly 
and  bitterly  of  a  neighbor ;  or,  again,  an  expression  of 
his  longing  to  be  quit  for  awhile  of  the  strife  of  tongues, 


The  Gate  of  the  Caravan.  305 

and  to  enjoy  the  rest  and  peace  of  the  sanctuary  of  God 
in  Jerusalem,  from  which  he  should  come  back  with  "a 
better>ed  and  more  patient  heart,  to  his  duties  and  strifes." 
But  no  such  difficulty  attaches  to  the  following  Psalm.' 
This  is  a  Pilgrim  Psalm  on  its  very  face.''  It  is  an  ex- 
pression of  trust  in  the  Creator  and  Keeper  of  Israel. 
Its  key-note  is  the  word  "keep,"  which  is  repeated 
six  times  in  the  last  five  verses.  It  is  not  hard  to  see 
how  appropriate  such  a  song  would  be  to  one  who  had 
left  his  home  and  family  in  the  keeping  of  Heaven,  and 
who  was  travelling  to  Zion,  exposed  to  the  peculiar  dan- 
gers of  an  Eastern  journey.  We  may  picture  the  caravai! 
making  its  evening  halt  within  sight  of  the  mountains, 
amid  which  Jerusalem  stands.  The  tents  are  pitched,  the 
darkness  gathers,  and  the  sense  of  loneliness  steals  over 
his  heart  as  he  thinks  how  the  desert  robber  may  break  in 
upon  his  camp ;  and  as  he  looks  up  to  the  mountains, 
and  remembers  how  help  has  so  often  appeared  on  the 
hills,  coming  down  to  the  aid  of  an  army  struggling  in  the 
jjlain,  and  thinks  that  that  mountain  rampart  before  him 
compasses  the  City  of  his  God,  he  breaks  out  into  the 
chant — "  I  will  lift  up  mine  eyes  imto  the  hills.  AV'hence 
should  my  help  come?"  Perhaps  another  voice  takes  up 
the  strain  and  answers — "  My  help  is  from  Jehovah,  the 
Maker  of  Heaven  and  Earth."  So  the  thought  goes  on. 
The  Creator  of  the  earth  is  also  the  Creator  of  Israel 
and  her  keeper.  He  has  led  the  nation  through  all  the 
vicissitudes  of  its  history.  He  who  keeps  the  nation  will 
also  keep  the  individual.     Therefore  he  assures  himself. 

'  cxxi  «  See  chap.  xvi.  "  Tlie  Gate  to  the  Higlilands." 


3o6  Gates  into  the  Psalm   Coimtry. 

He  verily  will  not  suffer  thy  foot  to  swerve.  He  will 
watch  and  guard  thee  on  thy  journey,  and  in  thy  nightly 
rest.  The  sun  shall  not  strike  thee  in  thy  day's  march  ; 
the  moon  shall  not  hurt  thee  though  thou  sleep  in  its  daz- 
zling rays ;  robbers,  disease,  whatever  may  threaten, — 
Jehovah  shall  keep  thee  from  all  evil,  even  inward  evil, 
for  He  shall  preserve  thy  soul  or  thy  life,  and  not  only 
now,  but  in  all  thy  goings  in  and  out  forevermore. 

Even  more  strongly  is  the  pilgrim  mark  upon  the  fol- 
lowing Psalm.'  The  time  of  the  feast  draws  near,  and 
friends  and  neighbors  come,  inviting  him  to  join  them 
m  their  visit  to  Jerusalem.  He  was  glad  when  they  said 
unto  him — "  Let  us  go  into  the  house  of  Jehovah."  Now 
the  scene  shifts  suddenly  to  the  Holy  City  itself  Our 
feet  have  stood  (perhaps  a  strict  perfect,- — have  stood  and 
are  still  standing)  within  thy  gates,  O  Jerusalem  : — Jeru- 
salem that  art  built  again  ; — thou  that  wast  laid  low,  and 
thy  holy  and  beautiful  house  burned  with  fire, — thou  art 
builded  again  :  the  gaps  and  waste  places  and  heaps  of 
ruins  are  gone  :  thou  art  a  city  "  compact  together." 
Here  are  expressed  the  pride  and  the  thankfulness  of  an 
exile  who  finds  the  city  of  his  love  and  honor  restored. 
Others,  however,  explain  the  "  compact "  by  the  conforma- 
tion of  the  site  of  the  city.  The  hill  of  Zion  was  cut  off 
by  ravines  from  the  rocky  plateau  of  which  it  forms  a  part, 
and  could  not  overleap  the  valleys  of  Kidron  nor  of  Hin- 
nom.  Hence  the  city  was  built  closely  together ;  every 
foot  of  ground  was  occupied. 

Under  the  power  of  emotions  excited  by  a  great  historic 


The  Gate  of  the  Caravan.  307 

centre,  the  mind  naturally  runs  back  into  the  past,  and  re- 
calls the  incidents  of  the  history.  So  is  it  with  our  pilgrim. 
He  is  doing  to  day  what  his  fathers  did.  To  this  city  the 
tribes  were  wont  to  go  up  of  old  according  to  God's  statute, 
and  as  a  testimony  of  their  covenant  relation  to  Him  : — to 
this  city, — the  centre  not  only  of  worship,  but  of  civil  au- 
thority ;  where  thrones  had  long  been  set  up  for  David  and 
for  his  descendants.  What  more  natural  than  that,  from  a 
review  of  the  i^ast,  the  thought  should  turn  to  prayer  for 
the  future  prosperity  of  the  Holy  City  and  temple  ;  in- 
voking .peace  upon  the  city  of  peace  ?  "  Peace  be  within 
thy  walls  :  prosperity  within  thy  palaces  :  not  only  on  my 
own  behalf,  but  for  the  sake  of  my  brethren  and  friends,  I 
repeat  it, — Peace  be  upon  thee." 

This  is  one  of  the  Psalms  which  are  ascribed  to  David ; 
but  it  contains  some  things  which  it  is  not  easy  to  explain 
on  this  supposition.  The  expression  "  thrones  of  the 
house  of  David,"  iiointing  to  a  long-established  dynasty, 
would  not 'be  a  natural  one  upon  David's  lips  :  and  when 
we  remember  that  Jerusalem  was  first  wrested  from  the 
Jebusites  by  David,  it  would  seem  unlikely  that  ho  should 
speak  of  it  as  the  place  in  which,  for  generations  past,  the 
Hebrew  tribes  had  come  up  before  Jehovah. 

T4ie  one  hundred  and  twenty-third  Psalm  has  been 
called  the  "  oculus  speratis  "  /  ' — the  song  of  one  whose 
eye  is  lifted  with  hope  to  God.  Whether  it  was  origin- 
ally the  plaint  of  an  exile  looking  for  deliverance  from 
captivity,  or  of  one  who,  after  the  return,  was  feeling 
the  contempt  and  scorn  of  the  Samaritans,  it  would  be 

*  Eye  of  hope. 


3o8  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Country. 

often  sung  by  the  pilgrims  of  later  date,  as  recalling  the 
conditions  of  that  sorrowful  time,  and  as  being,  no  less 
to  them  than  to  their  oppressed  and  suffering  ancestors, 
an  appropriate  expression  both  of  hope  and  of  desire. 
"  Our  eyes  wait  on  Thee  to  whom  our  fathers  looked. 
We  watch  the  intimations  of  Thy  will,  as  the  slave  watches 
the  master's  hand.  We  supplicate  Thee  in  our  own  sor- 
rows." It  is  easy  to  conceive  how  appropriate  this  Psalm 
might  be  to  pilgrims  in  the  days  of  the  Roman  occupation 
of  Jerusalem.  To  borrow  Mr.  Cox's  words, — "As  the 
caravan  advanced  from  range  to  range,  from  city  to  city, 
and  they  saw  new  proofs  that  the  enemy  was  in  the  land, 
and  the  alien  ruled  over  them  ;  as  they  watched  the  Roman 
cohort  winding  along  the  road,  or  saw  the  Roman  guard 
lounging  in  the  city  gate,  or  were  plundered  by  the  Pub- 
licans who  searched  their  baggage,  and  demanded  the 
Roman  dues  and  tolls,  and  felt  how  impossible  it  was  for 
them  to  resist  a  power  so  mighty,  and  so  ubiquitous, — if 
the  fiercer  spirits  among  them  were  roused  to  a  stern  and 
fiery  resentment,  those  of  a  gentler  mould  might  well  sigh 
out  their  grief  and  hope  in  the  verses  of  our  Psalm."  Nay, 
who  knows  if  the  words  may  not,  as  has  been  suggested 
by  the  same  author,  have  been  more  than  once  upon  the 
lips  of  Him  who  was  "despised  and  rejected  of  men,  op- 
pressed and  afflicted"  and  esteemed  "  smitten  of  God'"  ?  ' 
Who  knows  but  He  who  cried,  "  Father,  save  me  from  this 
hour,"^  may  have  given  voice  to  kindred  yearnings  in  the 
words — "  Unto  Thee  do  I  lift  up  mine  eyes,  O  Thou  that 
art  throned  in  the  Heavens  "  ? 

'  Isaiah  liii.  3,  4.  2  John  xii.  27. 


The  Gate  of  the  Caravan.  309 

I  can  do  no  more  now,  than  group  loosely  and  sketch 
some  general  features  of  the  remaining  Psalms,  with  a  view 
to  show  how  well  they  might  serve  as  expressions  of  the 
thought  of  pilgrims  bound  to  the  Holy  City. 

There  are,  for  instance.  Psalms  of  historic  retrospect. 
What  has  already  been  said  about  the  one  hundred  and 
twenty-second  Psalm,  ^ill  apply  to  several  of  the  others. 
Every  journey  to  Jerusalem  would  awaken  memories  of 
other  days,  and  would  lead  the  minds  of  the  pilgrims  over 
portions  of  the  nation's  history.  For  instance,  in  the  one 
hundred  and  twenty-fourth,  we  have  the  song  of  deliver- 
ance from  exile.  The  sorrows  of  foreign  oppression  are  de- 
scribed by  imagery  which  suggests  the  first  deliverance  from 
Egypfj  J^o  less  than  the  latest  deliverance  from  Babylon. 
"  The  waters," — like  the  Red  Sea,  '*  the  stream,  the  proud 
waters,"  like  the  rushing  mountain  torrent,  had  well  nigh 
swallowed  them  up.  They  were  as  a  bird  in  a  fowler's 
snare,  but  they  are  escaped.  Never  would  a  song  of  thanks- 
giving for  this  deliverance  be  inappropriate ;  and  often,  in 
after  times,  when  their  land  was  overrun  by  foreign  foes, 
-r-Greek,  Syrian,  Roman,  it  would  strengthen  the  hearts  of 
pilgrims  to  recall  the  old  deliverance.  So  they  might  sing 
the  one  hundred  and  twenty-fifth,  the  expression  of  trust 
on  the  part  of  the  returned  exiles,  molested  by  the  Sa- 
maritans, and  troubled  by  defections  among  the  Jews 
themselves,  the  righteous  "  putting  forth  their  hands  to 
iniquity"  and  "turning  aside  to  crooked  ways,"  contract- 
ing marriages  with  the  heathen,  and  neglecting  Jehovah's 
worship  as  they  had  done,  largely,  before  Nehemiah's 
arrival.  This,  I  say,  is  the  song  of  the  faithful  remnant;  a 
song  of  trust  in  the  God  who  is  "round  about  His  people 


3IO  Gates  into  the  Psahn   Country. 

as  the  mountains  compass  Jerusalem  :  "  who  will  protect 
them  though  no  walls  are  round  the  city,  and  who  will  not 
suffer  "  the  rod  of  the  wicked  to  rest  upon  the  lot  of  the 
righteous"  and  tempt  them  to  despair  and  sin.  What 
later  pilgrim  could  ever  look  upon  the  circling  mountain 
ramparts  of  the  Holy  City,  and  not  think  and  sing  of  his 
fathers'  struggle  and  of  his  fathers'  faith  ?  So  in  the  one 
hundred  and  twenty-sixth,  the  joy  which  "  filled  the  exiles' 
mouth  with  laughter "  is  tempered  by  the  feebleness  of 
the  little  band  in  the  presence  of  the  gigantic  work  to  be 
done,  and  of  the  numerous  and  powerful  enemies.  They 
are  but  as  a  tiny  thread  of  water  in  the  sandy  plain  of  the 
South.'  They  pray, — "  Turn  again  our  captivity  :  send  home 
our  exiles  in  such  numbers  that  it  may  be  as  when  the  tor- 
rents flood  this  southern  plain  in  the  rainy  season."  They 
hope  while  they  pray.  The  tearful  sower  shall  be  the  joy- 
ful reaper.  It  would  be  a  good  historic  retrospect  for  any 
pilgrim  of  any  date.  The  one  hundred  and  twenty-ninth 
recalls  again  the  sorrows  of  captivity,  when  "  the  ploughers 
ploughed  upon  the  back  and  made  long  their  furrows  :  " 
and  who  that  thought  of  Jerusalem  would  not  think  of  it^ 
sanctuary? — of  the  strange  wanderings  of  the  ark,  now  at 
Ephratah,  now  at  Kirjath-Jearim,  the  field  of  the  wood  ; — 
of  David's  yearning  to  find  a  place  for  Jehovah,  a  dwelling 
for  the  Mighty  One  of  Jacob  ;  of  the  priests'  song  as  the 
ark  was  moved  in  triumphal  procession  to  its  final  resting- 
place  : — "Arise,  O  Lord,  into  Thy  rest,  Thou  and  the 
ark  of  Thy  strength ; "  and  of  the  rich  promise  to  the 
dynasty  of  David  and  to  Zion  his  capital.     Thus  the  one 


'  See  chap.  xvii.  "  The  Gate  to  the  Harvest -Field." 


TJie  Gate  of  the  Caravaji.  311 

hundred  and  tbirly-second  falls  naturally  into  the  group 
of  pilgrim  Psalms. 

2. — There  are  pilgrim  Psalms  of  Doctrine  and  Spirit- 
ual Experience.  Such  are  the  one  hundred  and  thir- 
tieth and  one  hundred  and  thirty-first.  The  former — 
the  '■'■  ((e  profundis^' — is  a  cry  to  God  for  forgiveness, 
a  pleading  of  trust  and  of  long  waiting,  an  exhortation 
to  Israel  likewise  to  hope  and  to  wait.  This  is  a  the- 
ological Psalm.  Luther  called  it  one  of  the  Pauline 
Psalms,  because  he  said  it  taught  the  forgiveness  of  sins 
without  the  law  and  without  works.  It  reveals  the  two 
great  roots  of  Christian  theology, — sin  and  forgiveness. 
What  a  light  is  thrown  upon  the  human  heart  by  the 
words — "  If  Thou,  Lord,  shouldst  mark  iniquities,  O  Lord, 
who  shall  stand?"  What  a  glimpse  into  the  redemptive 
work  of  God  is  opened  by  the  succeeding  verse  ; — "  There 
is  forgiveness  with  Thee  that  Thou  mayst  be  feared." 
What  a  testimony  is  borne  throughout  the  Psalm,  by  the 
union  of  personal  experience  with  dogma,  that  a  true 
theology  is  bound  up  with  experience  and  elaborated  in 
living. 

So  the  one  hundred  and  thirty-first  is  a  song  of  humility, 
celebrating  the  blessedness  of  him  who  is  of  a  meek  and 
lowly  spirit,  as  becomes  a  forgiven  soul ; — the  "heart  not 
haughty  nor  the  eyes  lifted  up,  quiet  as  a  weaned  child." 
Would  not  such  Psalms  as  these  suggest  themselves  to 
one  whose  eyes  were  turned  toward  the  sanctuary  of  the 
living  God,  and  who  was  looking  forward  to  appearing 
there  with  offerings  for  sin,  with  humble  confession  and 
with  prayer  ? 

3. — We  have  Psalms  inspued  by  Domestic  and  Civic 


312  Gates  into  the  Psalm  Coimtry. 

Life.  In  the  one  hundred  and  twenty-seventh  and  one- 
hundred  and  twenty-eighth,  we  see  how  home  and  city 
are  kept  by  God  alone.  God  is  the  safeguard  of  the  com- 
monwealth to  whose  metropolis  the  pilgrim  is  journey- 
ing, and  of  the  far  off  home  with  wife  and  children,  which 
he  is  leaving  behind.  "  Mild  and  bright  pictures,''  says 
Isaac  Taylor,'  "  humanizing  in  the  best  sense  :  they  retain 
certain  elements  of  Paradise,  and  yet  more,  the  elements  of 
the  patriarchal  era,  with  the  addition  of  that  patriotism  and 
of  that  concentration  in  which  the  patriarchal  life  was  want- 
ing." In  these  modern  days,  when  fashion  is  striking  at  the 
dignity  and  the  privilege  of  motherhood,  stamping  it  as  a 
bar  to  selfish  pleasure,  or  branding  its  work  as  tame  and 
commonplace  beside  the  so-called  missions  of  unsexed 
women,  the  old  Hebrew  conception  of  the  household,  with 
its  sense  of  the  honor  of  parentage  and  of  the  sorrow  of  bar- 
renness, is  like  a  breath  from  the  mountains  in  a  land  of 
miasma  and  fever.  Would  that  in  every  newly-founded 
household  there  might  be  hung  the  twin  pictures  in  these 
two  Psalms — the  stalwart  sons  in  the  gate,  the  pride  of 
their  father,  supporting  his  dignity  and  sharing  his  coun- 
sels, and  the  cloistered  court,  fit  type,  with  its  clustering 
vines  and  thrifty  olives,  of  the  wife  and  children  on  the 
"inner  sides  of  the  house;" — and,  spanning  both,  the 
words  of  the  Father  of  "  the  whole  family  in  heaven  and 
earth,"  "' — '■  Behold  that  thus  shall  the  man  be  blessed 
that  feareth  the  Lord." 

We  might  perhaps  group  with  these  the  one  hundred 
and  thirty-third,  the  old  lesson  of  brotherly  love  so  power- 


'  Spirit  of  the  Hebrew  Poetry.  "  Epliesians  iii.  15. 


The  Gate  of  the  Caravan.  313 

fully  suggested  by  the  sight  of  Zion.  Psalm  and  Gospel 
answer  to  each  other.  While  we  listen  to  Christ,  saying, 
"  This  is  my  commandment,  that  ye  love  one  another,"  ' 
we  go  back  to  the  pilgrim  Psalm  to  see  the  same  lesson  in 
picture,  as  the  fragrant  oil  drops  from  the  head  of  God's 
priest :  to  learn  that  only  he  who  loves  is  God's  anointed, 
and  that  love,  like  the  dew  which  bathes  alike  the  lofty 
Hermon  and  the  lower  Zion,  alone  unites  the  lofty  and 
the  lowly, — all  social  grades  and  varieties  of  culture 
and  of  fortune,  in  the  Lord's  blessing  of  life  forever- 
more. 

The  closing  Psalm,  if  it  were  not  purposely  placed  at 
the  head  of  the  series,  nevertheless  admirably  serves  the  pur- 
pose of  a  final  blessing.  Its  thought  seems  to  be  couched 
in  the  imagery  of  the  night-watch  of  the  temple.  Some 
suppose  that  the  greeting  in  the  first  and  second  verses 
was  addressed  to  the  guard  going  off  'duty  by  those  who 
came  to  relieve  them  ;  who,  in  turn,  received  the  answer 
in  the  third  verse.  Others,  that  the  greeting  was  inter- 
changed between  two  companies  of  the  night-watch,  when 
they 'met  in  making  their  rounds  through  the  temple. 
Otliers  again  that  the  first  two  verses  are  addressed  by 
the  congregation  to  the  priests  and  Levites  who  had  charge 
of  the  night  service,  and  that  the  third  verse  is  an  answer 
of  blessing  from  them  to  the  congregation  gathered  on  the 
temple  mount.  Mr.  Cox  adopts  a  variation  of  this  latter 
view,  and  draws  a  graphic  picture  of  a  caravan  of  pilgrims 
starting  on  their  return  before  daybreak.  Looking  up  to 
the  temple  mount,  and  seeing  the  n)oving  torches  in  the 

'  JoIlU  XV.    12. 
14 


314  Gates  into  the  Psalm   Country. 

hands  of  the  priestly  watchmen,  they  Hft  up  their  voices 
to  the  temple  guard  and  cry — 

"  Behold,  bless  ye  the  Lord,  all  ye  servants  of  the  Lord, 
Who  stand  in  the  house  of  the  Lord  by  night. 
Lift  up  your  hands  toward  the  sanctuary, 
And  bless  ye  the  Lord." 

And  the  priests,  hearing  the  salutation,  respond, 

"  The  Lord  bless  thee  out  of  Zion. 
The  Maker  of  Heaven  and  Earth." 

It  is  not  strange  that  Bible  students  love  these  pilgrim 
songs.  They  attach  their  great  theological  and  moral 
utterances  to  the  mind  through  simple  and  graphic  picture- 
lessons.  There  is  one  word  which  of  itself  gives  them  a 
lasting  hold  upon  the  thought  and  feeling  of  all  Christian 
ages,  and  which  gathers  all  their  truths  and  illustrations 
into  one  sheaf.  The  emotion  which  shook  the  Hebrew's 
heart  whenever  Jerusalem  was  named,  pervades  them  all. 
Each  pilgrim  has  his  eye  upon  Moriah  while  he  sings,  as 
the  Moslem  turns  to  Mecca  in  his  prayer.  Jerusalem  ! 
The  glory  of  Solomon,  the  loved  goal  of  generations  of 
pilgrims,  the  bitter  memory  of  the  exile  by  the  Euphrates, 
the  sorrow  of  Jesus,  the  inspiration  of  Maccabaeus,  the 
fiery  text  of  Peter  the  Hermit,  the  battle-cry  of  God- 
frey and  of  Tancred — pervaded,  even  in  eclipse,  with  that 
subtle  attraction  which  drew  two  centuries  against  its 
walls  in  successive  billows  of  blood,  buiden  of  mediaeval 
hymns,  touched  with  the  glow  of  Dante's  verse  and  mov- 
ing Tasso  to  immortal  song,  God's  own  type  of  eternal 
rest,  of  a  perfect  society,  and  of  a  pure  church, — so  has 


The  Gate  of  the  Caravan.  315 

the  name  passed  into  Christian  thought  and  Christian 
song,  that  he  who  thinks  of  Heaven  has  al\va3's  the  yearn- 
ing of  Bernard's  hymn  in  his  heart,  if  not  its  words  upon 
liis  lips  : 

"  Jerusalem  the  glorious  ! 

The  glory  of  the  elect. 
O  dear  and  future  vision 

That  eager  hearts  expect  ! 
Ev'n  now  by  faith  I  see  thee, 

Ev'n  here  thy  walls  discern  ; 
To  thee  my  thoughts  are  kindled, 

And  strive,  and  pant,  and  yearn." 

They  are  no  less  sermons  for  being  poems.  Their  les- 
sons are  human,  not  local,  fitting  as  aptly  into  the  nine- 
teenth century  as  into  their  own  era  ;  as  fresh  and  as 
wholesome  to-day  as  when  the  Hebrew  i)i]grim  beguiled 
with  their  melody  his  way  through  the  desert,  or  chanted 
them  in  the  streets  of  his  beloved  city  :  and  as  the  shad- 
ows lengthen  and  the  degrees  grow  fewer  by  which  we 
mount  to  the  Jerusalem  above,  these  pilgrim  songs  will 
be  oftener  on  our  lips,  till  we  exiles  tread  the  streets 
wheie  they  sing  a  new  song,  and  need  no  more  the  shade 
at  noon  and  the  watch  by  night. 


THE    END. 


Gates  Into  ^Psalm-Country 


BY 


Rev.  MARVIN  R.  VINCENT,  D.D. 


One  Volume f  12tno,    ------       $1,50. 

CRITICAL    NOTICES. 

"  The  book  may  be  cordially  recommended  to  the  perusal  of  youn;- 
men  especially,  who  will  find  in  it  the  soundest  views  of  life  and  the  most 
elevated  religious  conceptions,  enforced  with  equal  kindness,  eloquence, 
and  power." — A'ao  York  Tribune. 

"As  meditations  upon  that  portion  of  Scripture  designed  for  popular 
rather  than  critical  reading,  they  are  delightful.  The  thought  is  warm  and 
earhest,  and,  like  the  Psalms  themselves,  these  studies  suggested  by  then* 
deal  with  the  common  experiences  of  life." — The  Churchman. 

"  In  the  execution  of  his  design.  Dr.  Vincent  has  shown  rare  skill  and 
ability.  The  work  seems  to  us  to  be  a  model  of  its  kind — scholarly,  thought- 
ful, enriched  but  not  encumbered  by  the  results  of  the  best  learning,  devout 
and  cheerful  in  spirit,  practical,  sensible,  and  like  the  Psalms  themselves, 
full  of  Christ  and 'the  Gospel.  The  style  is  singularly  clear,  racy,  and 
incisive." — iVew  York  Evangelist. 

"  They  are  rich  in  spiritual  counsel,  graceful  in  style,  happy  in  thought 
and  illustration.  The  book  is  meant  for  the  average  Bible-reader,  rather 
than  for  the  scholar,  and  any  devout  Christian  loving  the  Bible,  will' find  in 
it  an  abundance  of  interesting  and  suggestive  thought." — Boston  Watchman. 

"  The  treatment  is  deeply  spiritual,  the  tone  affectionate  and  earnest, 
and  the  style  clear,  direct,  and  often  picturesque  ;  and  we  are  sure  that 
many  a  Christian  will  find  in  the  volume  both  instruction  and  solace,  and 
varying  helps  for  varying  times  of  need."— Boston  Con^regationalist. 

"  They  who  thoughtfully  read  these  pages  find  themselves  not  only 
illumined  and  refreshed  by  the  immediate  subject,  but  stimulated  to  make 
the  Psalter  fruitful  under  their  own  meditative  study." 

— -Arw  Yorh  Christian  Intelligencer. 

"  Like  the  different  parts  of  a  beautiful  garden,  or  the  successive 
strains  of  sweet  music,  these  discourses  charm  the  soul  and  fill  it  with 
rupturous  emotions.  They  are  at  the  same  time  most  helpful  in  the  way 
of  right  living."— /.w/Z/t-raw  Quarterly. 

"Christians  of  every  name  will  find  strength  and  comfort  in  these 
essays,  which  are  as  sweet  as  they  are  simple,  and  as  solid  as  they  are 
unpretentious. "— T^ff  Living  Church. 


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AJJTIIOJtIZEJ)    JLMEItlCAN    EltlTION, 


ESSAYS    ON    ECCLESIASTICAL    SUBJECTS. 
By  A.    P.    STANLEY,    D.D., 

Late  Dean  of  Wesitninster. 
One  vol.,  crovT-n  8vo,  Library  Edition,  $2.50 ;  Students'  Edition,  75c, 

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Body  and  Blood  of  Christ,  Absolution,  Ecclesiastical  Vestments,  Basilicas, 
the  Pope,  the  Litany,  and  the  Belief  of  the  Early  Christians. 


"  They  have  all  an  antiquarian,  historical,  and  practical  interest,  and 
are  treated  in  a  very  liberal  and  very  attractive  style.  Dean  Stanley  is  a 
genius  as  well  as  a  scholar,  and  has  a  rare  power  of  word-painting.  His 
Histoiy  of  the  yewish  Church  and  of  the  Eastern  Church  are  as  inter- 
esting and  entertaining  as  a  novel.  He  always  seizes  on  the  most  salient 
points,  and  gives  them  an  artistic  finish.  He  avoids  all  pedantry  of  learn- 
ing, and  all  tedious  details." — Dr.  Schaff  hi  The  Critic. 


DEAN    STANLEY'S    OTHER   WORKS. 


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THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  EAST- 
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on  the  study  of  Ecclesiastical  History. 
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WESTMINSTER  .  EDITION  OF 
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(Sold  in  sets  only.)     fg.oo. 

THE  LIFE  AND  CORRESPOND- 
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Cotapleto    in    T\7enty-four    Volumes    8vo. 


EangF^s  QoinniFnlfiFg, 

CRITICAL,   DOCTRINAL,  AND    HOMILETICAL. 

ruA.NSJL.A.'X'JEr),    E;]sri:jA.R,&Ei>,  -a.nd    edited 

BY 

PHILIP    SCHAFF,    D.D., 

I'ROFF.SSOR      IX     THE     UNION     THEOLOGICAL    SliMINARV. 


This  is  the  most  comprehensive  and  exhaustive  Commentary  on  the  whole 
Bible  ever  published  in  this  or  any  other  country. 

Tiie  German  work,  on  which  the  English  edition  is  based,  is  the  product 
of  about  twenty  distinguished  Biblical  scholars,  of  Germany,  Holland,  and 
Switzerland,  and  enjoys  a  high  reputation  and  popularity  wherever  German 
theology  is  studied. 

The  American  edition  is  not  a  mere  translation  (although  embracing  the 
whole  of  the  German),  but,  to  a  large  extent,  an  or  initial  work  ;  about  one- 
third  of  the  matter  being  added,  and  tlie  whole  adai^ted  to  the  wants  of  the 
English  and  Americ.in  student  Its  popularity  and  sale  has  been  lately 
increasing  in  Great  Britain. 

The  press  lias  been  almost  unanimous  in  its  commendation  of  Langs's 
CoMMKNTAKY  It  is  generally  regarded  as  being,  on  the  whole,  tiie  most 
useful  Commentary,  especially  for  ministers  and  theological  students — in 
which  they  are  more  likely  to  find  what  they  desire  than  in  any  other.  It  is 
a  complete  treasury  of  Biblical  knowledge,  brought  down  to  the  latest  date. 
It  gives  the  results  of  careful,  scholarly  refearch  ;  yet  in  a  form  sufficiently 
popular  for  the  use  of  intelligent  laymen.  The  iloiniletical  department 
contains  the  best  thoughts  of  the  great  divines  and  pulpit  orators  of  all  ages, 
on  the  te.xts  explained,  and  supplies  rich  suggestions  for  sermons  and  Bible 
lectures. 

The  following  are  some  of  the  chief  merits  of  this  Commentary  : 

1.  It  is  orthodox  and  sound,  without  being  sectarian  or  denominational, 
It  fairly  represents  the  exegetical  and  doctrinal  consensus  of  evangelical 
divines  of  the  present  age,  and  yet  ignores  none  of  the  just  claims  of  liberal 
scientific  criticism. 

2.  ft  is  comprehensive  and  complete — giving  in  beautiful  order  the 
authorized  English  version  with  emendations,  a  digest  of  the  Critical  Appa- 
ratus, Exegetical  Explanations,  Doctrinal  and  Ethical  Inferences  and 
Reflections,  and  Homiletical  and  Practical  Hints  and  Applications. 

■^.  //  is  the  product  of  Jifly  Atncrican  {besides  twenty  European)  Scholars, 
from  the  leading  denominations  and  Theological  institutions  of  the  country. 
Professors  in  the  Theological  Seminaries  of  New  York,  Princeton,  Andover, 
•Jew  Haven,  H.artford,  Cambridge,  J-iochester.  Philadelphia.  Cincinnati, 
Alleghany,  Ch  cago,  Madison,  and  otner  places,  representing  the  Presbyte- 
rian, Episcjpal.  Congregational,  Baptist,  Methodist,  Lutheran,  and  Reformed 
Churches,  have  contributed  to  this  Commentary,  and  enriched  it  with  the 
results  of  their  special  studies.  It  may,  therefore,  claim  a  national  churactei 
more  than  any  other  work  of  the  kind  ever  published  in  this  country. 

8vo,  per  vol,,  in  sheep,  $6.50;  in  half  calf,  $7.50;  cloth,  $5.00. 

•,•  The  aiove  book  for  snle  by  all  booksrllers,  or  ■mill  be  sent,  post  or  exfirts 
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The 


Conflict  of  Christianity 

WITH    HEATHEgllSEVI. 

By  DR.    GERHARD     UHLHORN. 

TRANS  LA  TED     B  Y 
PROF.  EGBERT    C.  SMYTH    and    REV.  C.  J.  H.  ROPES. 


One    Volume,    Crown    SvOj   $2. SO. 

This  volume  describes  with  extraordinary  vividness  and  spirit  the 
religious  and  moral  condition  of  the  Pagan  world,  the  rise  and  spread 
of  Christianity,  its  conflict  with  heathenism,  and  its  final  victory.  There 
is  no  work  that  portrays  the  heroic  age  of  the  ancient  church  with  equal 
spirit,  elegance,  and  incisive  power.  The  author  has  made  thorough  and 
independent  study  both  of  the  early  Christian  literature  and  also  of  the 
contemporary  records  of  classic  heathenism. 


CRITIC.VIi     NOTICES. 

"It  is  easy  to  see  why.  this  volume  is  so  highly  esteemed.  It  is 
systematic,  thorough,  and  concise.  But  its  power  is  in  the  wide  mental 
vision  and  well-balanced  imagination  of  the  author,  which  enable  him  to 
reconstruct  the  scenes  of  ancient  histor}^  An  exceptional  clearness  and 
force  mark  his  style." — Boston  Advertiser. 

"  One  might  read  many  books  without  obtaining  more  than  a  fraction 
of  the  profitable  information  here  conveyed  ;  and  he  might  search  a  long 
time  before  finding  one  which  would  so  thoroughly  fix  his  attention  and 
command  his  interest." — P/iJI.   S.   S.    Times. 

"Dr.  Uhlhorn  has  described  the  great  conflict  with  the  power  of  a 
master.  His  style  is  strong  and  attractive,  his  descriptions  vivid  and 
graphic,  his  illustrations  highly  colored,  and  his  presentation  of  the  subject 
earnest  and  effective." — Providence  Journal. 

"The  work  is  marked  for  its  broad  humanitarian  views,  its  learning, 
and  the  wide  discretion  in  selecting  from  the  great  field  the  points  oi 
deepest  interest." — Chicago  /nter-Ot^an. 

"This  is  one  of  those  clear,  strong,  thorough-going  books  which  are 
a  scholar's  delight." — Hartford  Religious  Herald. 


*j{.*  For   sale   by   all  booksellers,    or   sent  post-paid   zipon    receipt    of 
frice,    by 

CHARLES   SCRIBNER'S   SONS, 

Nos.  743  AND  745  Broadway,  New  York. 


Old  Faiths  in  New  Light 

BY 

NEWMAN    SMYTH, 

Author    of   "  The   Religious   Feeling" 
One  Volume,  12mo,  cloth,         -         _         _         $l.SO. 


This  work  aims  to  meet  a  growing  need  by  gathering  materials  of 
faith  which  have  been  quarried  by  many  specialists  in  their  own  depart- 
ments of  Biblical  study  and  scientific  research,  and  by  endeavoring  to 
put  these  results  of  recent  scholarship  together  according  to  one  leading 
idea  in  a  modern  construction  of  old  faith.  Mr.  Smyth's  book  is  remark- 
able no  less  for  its  learning  and  wide  acquaintance  with  prevailing  modes 
of  thought,  than  for  its  fairness  and  judicial  spirit. 


CRITIC  A  li  NOTICES. 

"The  author  is  logical  and  thi-refore  clear.  lie  also  is  master  of  a  singularly 
attractive  literary  style.  Few  writers,  whose  books  come  under  our  eye,  succeed  in 
treating  metaphysical  and  philosophical  themes  in  a  manner  at  once  so  forcible  and  so 
interesting.  We  speak  strongly  about  this  book,  because  we  think  it  exceptionally 
valuable.  It  is  just  such  a  book  as  ought  to  be  in  the  hands  of  all  intelligent  men  and 
women  who  have  received  an  education  sufficient  to  enable  them  to  read  intelligently 
about  such  subjects  as  are  discussed  herein,  and  the  number  of  such  persons  is  very 
much  larger  than  some  people  think." — Coiig^regatioitalist. 

"  We  have  before  had  occasion  to  notice  tlie  force  and  elegance  of  this  writer,  and 
his  new  book  shows  scholarship  even  more  advanced.  *  ♦  *  When  we  say,  with 
some  knowledge  of  how  much  is  undertaken  by  the  saying,  that  there  is  probably  no  book 
of  moderate  compass  which  combines  ui  greater  degree  clearness  of  style  with  profundity 
of  subject  and  of  reasoning,  we  fulfil  simple  duty  to  an  author  whose  success  is  all  the 
more  marked  and  gratifying  from  the  multitude  of  kindred  attempts  with  which  we  have 
been  iiooded  from  all  .sorts  of  pens." — Presbyterian. 

"The  book  impresses  us  as  clear,  cogent  and  helpful,  as  vigorous  in  style  as  it  is 
honest  in  purpose,  and  calculated  to  render  valuable  service  in  showing  that  religion  and 
science  are  not  antagonists  but  allies,  and  that  both  lead  up  toward  the  one  God.  We 
fancy  that  a  good  many  readers  of  this  volume  will  entertam  toward  the  author  a  feeling 
of  sincere  personal  gratitude." — Boston  yournal. 

"  On  the  whole,  we  do  not  know  of  a  book  which  may  better  be  commended  to 
thoughtful  persons  whose  minds  have  been  unsettled  by  objections  of  modern  thought 
It  will  be  found  a  wholesome  work  for  every  minister  in  the  land  to  read." 

— Jixaininer  and  Chronicle. 

''  It  is  a  long  time  since  we  have  met  with  an  abler  or  fresher  theological  treatise 
than  Old  Faiths  in  Xetv  Light,  by  Newman  Smyth,  an  author  who  in  his  work  on 
"The  Religious  Keeling"  has  already  shown  ability  as  an  expounder  of  Christian 
doctrine. "  — Jnde/>endeni. 


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THE   RELIGIOUS   FEELING. 

By   Rev.   NEWMAN    SMYTH. 


One  Volume,  I2mo,  clotli,      ......      $1.25. 


In  this  volume  Mr.  Siiiyth  has  it  for  his  object  to  formulate  the  relig-^ 
ious  feeling  as  a  capacity  of  the  human  mind,  and  to  vindicate  its  claims 
io  authority.  He  sets  before  himself  at  the  outset  the  task  of  convicting 
sceptical  philosophy  out  of  its  own  mouth.  The  work  is  thoroughly  logical, 
and  displays  a  familiarity  with  the  most  recent  German  thought  which  is 
rarely  to  be  found. 

CRITICAIi    NOTICES. 

"  The  argument  in  its  clearness,  force  and  illustrations,  has  never,  to  our  knowledge, 
been  better  stated.  Mr.  Smyth  has  brought  to  his  work  a  clear,  analytical  mind,  an 
e.xtensive  knowledge  of  German  philosophical  thought,  and  an  intellectual  familiarity 
with  the  later  English  schools.  He  does  his  own  thinking,  and  writes  with  perspicuity 
and  vigor." — Xhe  Advance. 

"\Vc  welcome  this  volume  as  a  valuable  contribution  to  that  type  of  thought  in  the 
vindication  of  theism  which  is  specially  demanded  at  the  present  time.  The  discussion 
throughout  evinces  much  reading  and  vigorous  thought,  and  is  conducted  with  marked 
candor  and  ability." — Nenu  Englandcr. 

"  I'he  argument  contained  in  these  pages  is  eminently  satisfactory.  It  is  one  cf  the 
best  answers  to  Darwin  and  his  followers  we  have  ever  met  with." — The  Ckurc/unan. 


Orthodox  Theology  of  To-Day. 

By   Rev.    NEWMAN    SMYTH,    D.D. 

One  Volume,  12mo,        -  ....       $1.25. 

The  object  of  this  little  volume  is  to  answer  certain  olijections  which 
have  been  mged  against  evangelical  teaching,  and  it  is  s^nt  forth  "  for 
the  purpose  of  helping  among  men  the  removal  of  some  common  diffi- 
culties in  the  way  of  the  coming  of  a  better  day  of  faith." 

CR3TIC.4fi     NOTICES. 

"That  pleasing  vigor  of  thought  and  that  frequent  rare  beauty  cf  language  .  .  . 
are  conspicious  excellencies  of  these  sermons,  with  most  of  whose  utterances  we  can  hav^ 
strong  sympathy." — The  Congresatioiialist. 

'•His  latest  book.  The  Orthodox  'Theolosy  o/To  Day,hsi^  all  the  good  qualities  so 
abundantly  manifested  in  his  volumes  The  Religious  Feeling  ■Awii  Old  Faiths  in  New 
Light.  But  it  is  a  stronger  and  broader  book  than  either."  —  N.  Y.  Christian 
Advocate. 

'•  He  puts  things  differently  from  the  professed  conservators  of  Orthodox^-,  and  he  has 
much  sympatliy  with  honest  doubters;  but  he  keeps  his  reader  under  the  powerful  in- 
fluence of  Kvangelicol  conceptions  of  God,  Christ,  redemption  and  retribution.  No  man 
can  learn  from  hi.s  pages  to  think  lightly  of  sin,  or  to  make  little  of  religious  truth." — 
Phila,  Sunday  School  Times. 

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743  AND  745  Broadway,  New  York, 


The  Theoi^y  of  Preaching, 

OR 

LECTURES     ON     HOMILETICS. 

By    Professor    AUSTIN    PHELPS,    D.D. 


One  voluinc.  Svo,         ^         -         _         _         _         $2.50 

This  work,  now  offered  to  the  ^uMic,  is  the  growth  of 
more  than  thirty  years'  practical  experiei.ce  in  teaching. 
While  primarily  designed  for  professional  readers,  it  will  be 
found  to  contain  much  that  v/ill  be  of  interest  to  thoughtful 
laymen.  The  writings  of  a  master  of  style  of  broad  and 
catholic  mind  are  always  fascinating;  in  the  present  case  the 
wealth  of  appropriate  and  pointed  illustration  renders  this 
doubly  the  case, 

CKITirVIi     NOTICES. 

"  In  the  range  of  Protestant  homilotical  literature,  we  venture  to  affirm  tliat  its  equal 
cannot  be  found  for  a  conscientious,  scholarly,  and  exhaustive  treatment  of  ihe  theory 
and  practice  of  preach  ine.  *  *  *  To  the  treatment  of  his  subject  Dr.  Phelps  brings 
su.h  quahfications  as  very  few  men  now  living  possess.  His  is  one  of  those  delicate  and 
sensitive  natures  which  are  instinctively  critical,  and  yet  full  of  what  ftlatthew  Arnold 
happily  calls  sweet  reasonableness.  *  *  *  To  this  characteristic  sraciousness  of 
nature  Dr.  Phelps  adds  a  style  which  is  preeminently  adapted  to  his  special  work.  It  is 
nervous,  epigrammatic,  and  racy.'' — The  iLxaitiiner  and  Chronicle. 

"It  is  a  wise,  spirited,  pr.actical  and  devout  treatise  upon  a  topic  of  the  utmost  con- 
sequence to  pastors  and  people  alike,  and  to  the  salvation  of  niankuid.  It  is  elaborate 
but  not  redundant,  rich  in  the  fruits  of  experience,  yet  thoroughly  timely  and  current, 
and  it  easily  takes  the  very  first  rank  amonj;  volumes  ot  its  class.  —  The  Collar e^a- 
tionalisl. 

"The  layman  will  find  it  delightful  readin:;,  and  ministers  of  all  denominations  and 
of  all  degrees  of  experience  will  rejoice  in  it  as  a  veritable  mine  of  wisdom." — Netv  Vor/b 
Christian  Advocate. 

"The  volume  is  to  be  commended  to  voting  men  as  a  superb  example  of  the  art  in 
which  it  aims  to  instruct  them." — The  Independent. 

"The  reading  of  it  is  a  rnental  tonic.  The  preacher  cannot  but  feel  often  his  heart 
burning  withm  him  under  its  influence.  We  could  wish  it  might  be  in  the  hands  of  every 
theological  student  and  of  every  pastor."  —  The  H'atchinan. 

"Thirty-one  years  of  experience  as  a  professor  of  homilctics  in  a  leading  American 
Theological  Seminary  by  a  man  of  genuis,  learning  and  power,  are  condensed  into  this 
valuable  \o\ume.''— Christian  Intelligencer. 

"  Our  professional  readers  will  mike  a  great  mistake  if  they  suppose  this  volume  is 
simply  a  heavy,  monotonous  discussion,  chiefly  adapted  to  the  class-room.  It  is  a 
delightful  volume  for  general  reading."— ^i^j/cjw  Zion's  Herald. 


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'  CHARLES  SCRIBXER'S  SONS,   Piru.shers. 

743  AND  745  Broadway,  New  York, 


A     NEW    EDITION. 


Books    and   Reading. 


NOAH    PORTER,  LL.D.,  President  of  Yale  College, 

With  an  appendix  givi?tg  valuable  directions  for  courses  oj 

readings  prepared  by  James  M.  Hubbard,  late 

of  the   Boston   Public   Library. 


1    vol.,    ero^Arn    8vo.,  _  _  _  $2.00. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  name  any  American  better  qualified 
than  President  Porter  to  give  advice  upon  the  important 
question  of  "  What  to  Read  and  How  to  Read."  His 
acquaintance  with  the  whole  range  of  English  literature  is 
most  thorough  and  exact,  and  his  judgments  are  eminently 
candid  and  mature.  A  safer  guide,  in  short,  in  all  literary 
matters,  it   would   be   impossible   to    find. 


"The  great  value  of  the  book  lies  not  in  prescribing  courses  of  reading,  but  in  a 
discussion  of  principles,  which  lie  at  the  foundation  of  all  valuable  systematic  reading." 

— The  Christian  Standard. 

"Young  people  who  wish  to  know  what  to  read  and  how  to  read  it,  or  how  to  pursue 
a  particular  course  of  reading,  cannot  do  better  than  begin  with  this  book,  which  is  a 
practical  guide  to  the  whole  domain  of  literature,  and  is  full  of  wise  suggestions  for  the 
improvement  of  the  mind." — Philadelphia  Bulletin. 

"President  Porter  himself  treats  of  all  the  leading  departments  of  literature  of  course 
with  abundant  knowledge,  and  with  what  is  of  equal  importance  to  him,  with  a  very 
definite  and  serious  purpose  to  be  of  service  to  inexperienced  readers.  There  is  no  better 
or  more  interesting  book  of  its  kind  now  within  their  reach." — Boston  Advertiser. 

"  President  Noah  Porter's  '  Books  and  Reading'  is  far  the  most  practical  and  satis- 
factoi-y  treatise  on  the  subject  that  has  been  published.  It  not  only  answers  the  qnestions 
'What  books  shall  I  read?'  and  'How  shall  I  read  them?'  but  it  supplies  a  large  and 
well-arranged  catalogue  imder  appropriate  heaiJs,  sufficient  for  a  large  family  or  a  small 
public  \\hx3.xy."—Bosto7i  Zion's  Herald. 


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Men  and  Books; 

OR,    STUDIES    IN    HOMILETICS 

Lectures  Introductory  to  the  "Theory  of  Preaching." 
By  Professor  AUSTIN  PHELPS,  D.D. 


One  Volume.     Crown   8vo.  -  -  $2.00 


Professor  Phelps'  second  volume  of  lectures  is  more  popular  and  gen- 
eral in  its  application  than  "  The  Theory  of  Preachingf."  It  is  devoted  to 
a  discussion  of  the  sources  of  culture  and  power  in  the  profession  of  the 
pulpit,  its  power  to  absorb  and  appropriate  to  its  own  uses  the  world  of 
real  life  in  the  present,  and  the  v/orld  of  the  past,  as  it  lives  in  books. 

There  is  but  little  in  the  volume  that  is  not  just  as  valuable  to  all 
students  looking  forward  to  a  learned  profession  as  to  theological  students, 
and  the  charm  of  the  style  and  the  lofty  tone  of  the  book  make  it  difficult 
to  lay  it  down  when  it  is  once  taken  up. 


"It  is  a  book  obviously  free  from  all  padding.  It  is  a  //rv  book,  animated  as  well 
as  sound  and  instructive,  in  which  conventionalities  are  brushed  aside,  and  the  autho' 
goes  straight  to  the  marrow  of  the  subject.  No  minister  can  read  it  without  being  waked 
up  to  a  higher  conception  of  the  possibilities  of  his  calling." 

— Pro/i'ssor  George  P.  Fisher. 

"  It  is  one  of  the  m.ist  helpful  books  in  the  interest'i  of  self-culture  that  lias  ever  been 
written.  While  speci.illy  intended  for  young  clergymen,  it  is  almost  equally  well  adapted 
for  students  iu  all  the  liberal  professions." — Standani  of  t/te  Cross. 

"We  are  sure  that  no  minister  or  candidate  for  the  ministry  c.in  read  it  without  profit. 
It  is  a  tonic  for  one's  mind  to  read  a  book  so  lad^n  with  thought  and  suggestion,  and 
written  in  a  style  so  fresh,  strong  and  bracing." — Boston    IVatchmati. 

"  Viewed  in  this  light,  for  their  orderly  and  wise  and  rich  suggestlveness,  these  lec- 
tures of  Professor  Phelps  are  of  simply  incomparable  merit.  Every  page  is  crowded  with 
observations  and  suggestions  of  striking  pertinence  and  force,  and  of  that  kind  of  wisilom 
which  touches  the  roots  of  a  matter.  Should  one  begin  to  make  quotations  illustrative  of 
this  remark,  there  would  be  no  end  of  them.  While  the  book  is  meant  specially  for  the 
preacher,  so  rich  is  it  in  sage  remark,  in  acute  discernment,  in  penetrating  observation  ot 
now  men  are  most  apt  to  be  influenced,  and  what  are  the  most  telling  qualities  in  the  va- 
rious forms  of  literary  expression,  it  must  become  a  favorite  treatise  with  the  best  minds  in 
alL^tTe'otHcT  professions.  The  author  is.  in  a  very  high  sense  of  the  term,  an  arti'.t,  as  for 
/a  quarter  of  a  century  he  has  been  one  of  the  most  skillful  instructors  of  young  men  in 
that  which  is  the  noblest  of  all  the  arts." — Chicago  Advance. 


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The  Conflicts  of  the  ylge. 


One  Vol.,  8vo,       -      Paper,  50  Cts.  ;   Cloth,  75  Cts. 


The  four  articles  which   make   up  this  little  volume  are : 

(i)  An  Advertisement  for  a  New  Religion.     By  an  Evolutionist. 

(2)  The  Confession  of  an  Agnostic.     By   an   Agnostic. 

(3)  What  Morality  have  we  left  ?     By  a  New-Light  Moralist. 

(4)  Review    of  the    Fight.       By   a   Yankee    Farmer. 

The  secret  of  its  authorship  has  not   yet   transpired,  and  the  reviewers 
seem  badly  puzzled  in  their  attempts  to  solve  the  mystery. 


CRITICAIi    NOTICES. 

"Nowhere  can  an  ordinary  reader  see  in  a  more  simple  and  pleasing  form,  the 
absurdities  which  lie  in  the  modern  speculations  about  truth  and  duty.  We  have  no  key 
to  the  authorship,  but  the  writer  evidently  holds  a  practiced  pen,  and  knows  how  to  give 
that  air  of  fiersiftage  iri  treating  of  serious  subjects  vt-hich  sometimes  is  more  effective 
than  the  most  cogent  dialectic."  —  Christian  JnteUigeiicer. 

"  It  is  the  keenest,  best  sustained  exposure  of  the  weaknesses  inherent  in  cer'ain 
schools  of  modern  thought,  which  we  have  yet  come  across,  and  is  couched  in  a  vein  of 
fine  satire,  making  it  exceedingly  readable.  For  an  insight  into  the  systems  it  touches 
upon,  and  for  its  suggestions  ot  methods  of  meeting  them,  it  is  capable  of  bemg  a  great 
help  to  the  clergy.  It  is  a  new  d;rparture  in  apologetics,  quite  in  the  spirit  of  the  lime.'' — 
The  Living  Church. 

"The  writer  has  chosen  to  appear  anonymously;  but  he  holds  a  pen  keen  as  a 
Damascus  blade.  Indeed,  there  are  few  men  living  capable  of  writing  these  papers, 
and  of  dissecting  so  thoroughly  the  popular  conceits  and  shams  of  the  day.  It  is  done, 
too,  with  a  coolness,  self-possession,  anil  sang-froid,  that  are  inimitable,  however  un- 
comfortable it  may  seem  to  the  writhing  victims.^' — The  Guardian. 

*'  These  four  papers  are  unqtialifiedly  good.  They  show  a  thorough  acquaintance 
with  the  whole  range  of  philosophic  thought  in  its  modern  phases  of  development,  even 
down  to  the  latest  involutions  and  convolutions  of  the  Evolutionists,  the  sage  unknow- 
ahleness  of  the  Agnostic,  and  the  New  Light  novelty  of  Ethics  without  a  conscience." — 
Lutheran  Church  Review.  . 

"  These  papers  are  as  able  as  they  are  readable,  and  are  not  offensive  in  their  spirit, 
beyond  the  necessary  offensiveness  of  belief  to  the  believing  mind." — N.  Y.  Christian 
Advocate. 

"The  discussion  is  sprightly,  incisive,  and  witty;  and  whoever  begins  to  read  it 
will  be  likely  to  read  it  through." — Neiu  Jinglandcr. 


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The    Emotions. 


JAMES  McCOSH,  D.D.,  LL.D., 

President  of  Princeton   College. 


One  Volume,  crown  8vo.,  _        _        _        $2.00. 

In  this  little  volume  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  clearly  printed  pages 
Dr.  McCosh  treats  first  of  the  elements  of  emotion,  and,  secondly,  of  the 
classification  and  description  of  the  emotions.  He  has  been  led  to  the 
consideration  of  his  theme,  as  he  says  in  his  preface,  by  the  vagueness  and 
nmbiguity  in  common  thought  and  literature  in  connection  with  the  subject, 
and  by  "  the  tendency  on  the  part  of  the  prevailing  physiological  psychol- 
ogy of  the  day  to  resolve  all  feeling  and  our  very  emotions  into  nervous 
action,  and  thus  gain  an  important  province  of  our  nature  to  materialism." 
The  work  is  characterized  by  that  "  peculiarly  animated  and  commanding 
style  which  seems  to  be  a  part  of  the  author." 


CniTICAIi    NOTICES. 

"Dr.  McCosh's  style  is  as  lucid,  vigorous,  and  often  beautiful  as  of  old.  There 
3s  never  any  doubt  as  to  his  meaning,  nor  any  hesitation  in  his  utteiance." — London, 
Academy. 

"  It  would  be  well  if  all  who  have  it  as  tlie'r  business  to  influence  the  ch.irncter  of 
men  would  study  such  a  work  as  this  on  the  Emotions." — Kxamitter  and  Chronicle. 

"We  recommend  it  to  all  students  as  a  perspicuous  and  graceful  contribution  to 
what  has  always  proved  to  be  the  most  popular  part  of  mental  philosophy." — The  AF.  Y. 
Mvangelist. 

"The  work  is  marked  by  great  clearness  of  statement  and  profound  scholarship — two 
thine;s  which  are  not  always  combined.  ...  It  will  prove  attractive  and  instructive 
to  any  intelligent  reader." — Albany  Jiziening  Jour  rial. 

"The  analysis  is  clear  and  the  style  of  crystalline  clearness.      We  are  inclined  to 

think  it  will  be  the  most  popular  of  the  author's  works.  We  have  read  it  from  beginning 

to  end  with  intense  enjoyment — with  as  much  interest,  indeed,  as  could  attach  to  any 
work  of  fiction." — The  Presbyterian. 

"  The  whole  subject  of  the  volume  is  treated  by  Dr.  McCosh  in  a  common  sense  way. 
with  lart;e  reference  to  its  practical  applications,  aiming  at  clearness  ol  expression  and 
aptness  of  illustration,  rather  than  with  any  show  of  metaphysical  acuteness  or  technical 
nicety,  and  often  with  uncommon  beauty  and  force  of  diction." — N.  Y.  Tribune. 

"  Apart  from  the  comprehension  of  the  entire  argument,  any  chapter  and  almost 
every  section  will  prove  a  quickening  and  nourishing  portion  to  many  who  will  ponder 
it.  It  will  be  a  liberal  feeder  of  pastors  and  preachers  who  turn  to  It.  The  ahno^t 
prodigal  outlay  of  illustrations  to  be  found  from  first  to  finis,  will  fascinate  the  reader  il 
nothin.5  else  docs." — Christian  Intelligencer. 


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EEISSUE  rar  NEW  BUTDING,  CLOTH,  GILT  TOP. 
Reprinted  from  Revised  London  Editions  by  arrangement  with  the  Author. 


CH  PS   FROM   A   GERMAN  WORKSHOP. 

Vol.     I.  Essays  on  the  Science  of  Religion. 

Vol.    II.  Essays  on  Mythology,  Traditions,  and  Customs. 

Vol.  III.  Literature,  Biography,  and  Antiquities. 

Vol.  IV.  Comparative  Philology,  Mythology,  etc. 

Vol     V.  Miscellaneous.     Just  Published 
Five  volumes,  crown  8vo,  cloth,  gilt  top.     Per  set,  $10.00. 
*#*  Volume  V.  supplied  in  old  style  cloth,  uncut,  if  desired.    Price,  $2.00. 

From  the  Neiv    York  Evettittg  Post. 
'"These  books  by  Prof.  Miiller  afford  no  end  of  interesting  extracts;   'Chips'  by  the 
cord,  that  are  full  both  to  the  intellect  and  the  imagination  ;  but  we  mu^trefer  the  curious 
reader  to  the  volumes  themselves.     He  will  find  in  them  a  body  of  combined  entertain- 
ment and  instruction  such  as  has  hardly  ever  been  brought  together  in  so  compact  a  Ibrm." 


LECTURES  ON   THE  SCIENCE  OF   LANGUAGE. 

First  Series  : — Comprising  those  delivered  in  April,  May,  and  June, 
1861.     One  vol.,  crown  8vo,  cloth,  $2.00. 

Second  Series: — Comprising  those  delivered  in  February,  March, 
April,  and  May,  1863.  IVitk  thirty-one  illustrations.  One  vol.,  crown  8vo, 
cloth,  $3.00. 

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gation, it  is  ample,  both  to  satisfy  the  desire  of  those  who  wish  to  get  the  latest  results 
of  philosophy,  and  to  stimulate  the  curiosity  of  wiioever  wishes  to  go  further  and  deeper. 
It  is,  by  far,  the  best  and  clearest  summing  up  of  the  present  condition  of  the  science  of 
language  that  we  have  ever  seen,  while  the  liveliness  of  style  and  the  variety  and  fresh- 
ness of  illustration  make  it  exceedingly  interesting. 


LECTURES  ON    THE   SCIENCE  OF  RELIGION. 

WITH  PAPERS  ON  BUDDHISM,  AND  A  TRANSLATION  OF 
THE  DHAMMAPADA,  OR  P.\TH  OF  VIRTUE.  By  F.  Max 
MtJLLER,  M.A.     One  vol.,  crown  8vo,  cloth,  $2.00. 

From  the  Chicago  Evening  yournnl, 
"The  thoroughness  of  its  method,  the  vigor  and  clearness  of  its  discussions,  and 
the  extensive  learning  wrought  into  the  text  of  the  work,  give  it  the  high  character  which 
commands  for  such  a  production  the  rank  and  authority  of  a  standard." 


THE   ORIGIN   AND   GROWTH   OF  RELIGION, 

As  illustrated  by  the  Religions  of  India.     By  F.  Max  Mdller.    One  vol. 

crown  8vo.,  cloth,  $2.00. 
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JS.     NK"W     ,A->rr)     CHKAlPKri     KDITIOlSr. 

• -• ■ 

CONYBEARE   AND    HOWSON'S 

Life  and  Epistles  of  St.  Paul, 

By  the  REV.  W.  J.  CONYBEARK,  M.A.,  Late  Fellow  of  Trinity  Coike^^ 
Cambridge,  and  the  RKV.  J.  S   HOWSON,  Dean  of  Cl.ester. 


Two  vols,  in  one,  with  all  the  maps  and  illustrations,    Cloth,  $3.00. 

The  object  of  this  work  is  to  present  a  living  picture  of  St.  Paul  him- 
K'lf,  and  of  the  circumstances  by  which  he  was  surrounded.  It  is  beyond 
:loubt  one  of  most  absorbing  and  interesting  biographies  ever  given  to  the 
^'orld.  It  is  compiled  chiefly  from  St.  Paul's  own  letters,  and  from  the 
aarrative  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles. 

riiese  have  been  sulyected  to  a  very  thorough  study  and  exhaustive 
analysis,  and  every  fact,  incident,  and  allusion  which  they  contain  has  been 
brought  to  light  and  wrought  into  this  narrative.  But  to  present  any- 
tlung  like  a  living  picture  of  St.  Paul's  career,  much  more  is  necessary 
than  a  mere  transcript  of  the  Scriptural  history.  It  is  necessary  to  repro- 
duce his  times — the  various  phases  of  ancient  thought  and  life  v/ith  wliich 
he  was  brought  into  contact,  the  influences  under  which  he  grew  to  man- 
hood, the  state  of  the  Roman  Empire  in  his  day,  the  character  of  the 
Greek  and  Roman  Religion,  of  civilization  at  the  epoch,  the  political 
[X)sition  of  the  Jews,  the  pliysical  features  of  the  countries  he  traversed, 
and  the  likeness  of  the  things  and  of  the  men  among  which  Christianity 
arose  in  the  midst  of  Judaism.  All  this,  and  much  more,  is  done  in  this 
v/ork,  and  done  in  a  way  and  with  a  fidelity  and  thoroughness  which  lay 
the  world  under  great  obligation  to  the  learned  and  painstaking  authors. 
The  carefully  prepared  maps  and  numerous  engravings  increase  the 
value  of  the  work,  and  contribute  to  make  it  one  of  the  noblest  contribu- 
tions to  the  literature  of  the  Hible  which  our  day  has  produced. 


CRITIC  A  li    NOTICES. 


"A  valu.ible  help  toward  understanding  the  New  Testament." — North  Drititk 
Rrt'ifn'. 

"  It  is  onr  sober  conviction  that,  .ns  a  ^uide  to  the  true  knowledge  of  Paul's  life  and 
irntings,  it  is  worth  any  half  dozen  commentaries  we  hare  met  with  " — Rev.  Dr. 
^PRAGUE,  Albany.  

•»•   The  nixme  book  for  sale  by  all  booksellers,  or  ivilt  be  senty  post  or  exfreti 
rkargeM  *aid.  upon  receipt  0/  the  price  liy  the  publishers, 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS, 

743  AND  741;  Broadway.  Nkw  York. 


Now  in  process  of  puhlicaiion,  uniform  with  Epochs  of  Modern  History,  ^ack 
vobmie  in  121710  size,  and  complete  in  itself. 

^pr^s  of  ^nripnl^  ]^isiopg. 

A  series  of  Books  narrating  the  HISTORY  OF  GREECE  AND  ROME,  and  of  their 

relations  to  otlier  Countries  at  Successive  Epochs.     Edited  by  the  Rev.  G-  W. 

COX,  M.  A.,  Author  of  the  "  Aryan  Mythology,"  "  A  History  of 

Greece,'"  etc.,  and  jointly  by  CHARLES  SANKEY, 

M.  A.,  late  Scholar  of  Queen's  College,  Oxford. 


Volumes  already  issued  in  the  "  Epochs  of  Ancient  History."    Each  one  volumo 
12mo,  cloth,  $1.00. 


The  GREEKS  and  the  PERSIANS.  By  the  Rev.  G.  W.  Cox,  M.  A.,  late  Scholar  of 
Trinity  College,  O.xford  :  Joint  Editor  of  the  Series.    With  four  colored  Maps. 

The  EARLY  ROMAN  EMPIRE.  From  the  Assassination  of  Julius  Cssar  to  the 
Assassination  of  Domitian.  By  the  Rev.  W.  Wolfe  Capes,  M.A.,  Reader  of  An- 
cient History  in  the  University  of  Oxford.     With  two  colored  mai^s. 

The  ATHENIAN  EMPIRE  from  the  FLIGHT  of  XERXES  to  the  FALL  of 
ATHENS.  By  the  Rev.  G.  W.  Cox,  M.  A.,  late  Scholar  of  Trinity  College,  Oxford  : 
Joint  Editor  of  the  Series.    With  five  Maps. 

The  ROMAN  TRIUMVIRATES.  By  the  Very  Rev.  Charles  Merivale,  D.  D., 
Deanf^f  Ely. 

EARLY  ROME,  to  its  Capture  by  the  Gauls.  By  Wilhelm  Ihne,  Author  of  "  History 
of  Rome.''    With  Map. 

THE  AGE  OF  THE  ANTONINES.    By  the  Rev.  W.  Wolfe  Capes,  M.  A.,  Reader 

of  Ancient  History  in  the  University  at  Oxford. 

The  GRACCHI,  MARIUS,  and  SULLA.    By  A.  H.  Beesly.    With  Maps. 

THE  RISE  OF  THE  MACEDONIAN  EMPIRE.  By  A.  M.  Curteis,  M.  A.  1 
vol.,  i6mo,  with  maps  and  plans. 

TROY — Its  Legend,  History,  and  Literature,  with  a  sketch  of  the  Topography  of  the 
Troad.     By  S.  G.  W.  Ben'JAMIN.     1  vol.   i6mo.     With  a  map. 

ROME  AND  CARTHAGE.     By  R.  Bosworth  Smith,  M.A. 

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743  AND  745  Broadway,  New  York. 


"These    volumes    contain    the    ripe    resulta  of  the  studies   of  men   wh« 
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'iDiTED  BY  EDWARD  E.  MORRIS,  M.A. 


The  ERA  of  the  PROTESTANT  REVOLUTIOW.  hy  V.  Seebohm,  Antlior  of 
••'I'lie  Oxford  Reformers — Colet,   Erasmus,   More.'" 

The  CRUSADES.     By  the  Rev.  G.W.Cox,  M.A.,  Author  of  the  "  History  of  Greece." 

The    THIRTY    YEARS'    WAR,     1618—1643.     13y  Samuel  Rawson  Gardiner. 

The  HOUSES  of  LANCASTER  and  YORK;  with  the  CONQUEST  and  LOSS  . 
of  FRANCE.     By  James  GAiKDNhK,  of  tlie  Public  Record  Office. 

The  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  and  FIRST  EMPIRE  ;  an  Historical  Sketch. 
By  W.M.  O'Co.s.NOK  MoKKis,  with  an  Appendix  by  Hon.  Andrew  D.  Whith. 

The  AGE  OF  ELIZABETH.     By  the  Rev.  M.  Creighton.  M.A. 

The  PURITAN  REVOLUTION.    By  J.  Langton  Sanford. 

The  FALL  of  the  STUARTS;  and  WESTERN  EUROPE  from  1078  to  1697. 
By  ihe  Rev.  Edward  Hale,  M.A.,  Assist.  Master  at  Eton. 

The  EARLY  PLANTAGENETS  and  their  relation  to  the  HISTORY  of  EUROPE  : 
the  foundation  and  growth  of  CONSTITU  TIONAL  GOVERNMENT.  By  the  Rev. 
Wm.  SruuiiS,  M.A.,  etc.,  Pio:essor  of  Modern  History  in  the  University  of  Oxford. 

The  BEGINNING  of  the  MIDDLE  AGES;  CHARLES  the  GRE.AT  and 
ALKRED:  the  HISTORY  of  ENGLAND  in  its  connection  with  that  ot  EUROPE 
in  tlie  NINTH  CENTURY.     By  the  Very  Rev.  R.  W.  Church,  M.A. 

The  AGE   of  ANNE.     By  Edward  E.  Morris,  M.A.,  Editor  of  Jhe  Series. 

The    NORMANS   IN   EUROPE.     By  the  Rev.  A.  H.  Johnson,M.A. 

EDWARD   III.     By  the  Rev.  W.  Wardukton-,  M.A. 

FREDERICK  the  GREAT  and  the  SEVEN  YEARS'  WAR.     By  F.  W.  Longman, 

of  BaUic  Cui:ci^e.  OxforJ. 

The  EPOCH  of  REFORM,     1S30  to  1850.     By  Justin  McCarthy. 

The  above  15  volumes  in  Roxburg  Style,  Leather  Labels  and  Gilt  Top.      Pnt 
up  in  a  handsome  Box.    Sold  only  in  Sets.    Price,  per  set,  $15.00. 


♦,*  7'/te  aiore  ioois  /or  sale  by  all  booksellers,  or   ivill  be  sent,  post  or  expt  est 
charges  paid,  upon  receipt  of  t  lie  price  by  the  pitblishers, 

CH.ARLES    SCRIBNER'S    SONS, 

743  AND  745  Bkoadw.w,  New  York, 


The  Religions  of  China. 

CONFUCIANISM  AND  TAOISM    DESCRIBED  AND  COM- 
PARED  WITH  CHRISTIANITY. 

By     JAMES      LEGGE, 

Professor  of  the  Chinese  Language  atid  Literature  in  the  Ufiiversity  of  Oxford. 


One    volume,   12nio,        -         -        $l.BO. 


Professor  Legge's  work  is  by  far  the  most  simple  and  easily 
comprehended  exposition  of  Chinese  religions  that  exists,  and 
is  remarkable  for  its  freedom  from  a  polemic  bias,  and  for  the 
easy,  confident  touch  of  a  man  whose  mind  is  saturated  with 
his  subject  and  at  home  in  every  branch  of  it. 


"The  entire  volume  deserves  a  wide  and  attentive  reading." — Chicago  Tribune. 

"  Prof.  Leg^e  is.  perhaps,  the  highest  authority  on  all  matters  connected  with  a 
knowledge  of  the  Chinese  literature  and  philosophy." — Richinoitd  Central  Presby- 
terian. 

"  Prof.  Legge's  work  is  a  remarkably  instructive  and  critical  contribution  to  our 
knowledge  of  the  Chinese." — St.  Louis  Central  Christian  Advocate. 

"  As  the  work  of  perhaps  the  first  of  scholars  in  all  that  pertains  to  China,  we  heartily 
commend  this  book." — Buffalo  Courier. 

"For  the  scholar  and  the  minister  who  desire  information  about  the  religions  of  the 
largest  nation  on  earth,  and  who  are  likely  to  play  an  important  part  hereafter  in  the 
history  of  the  world,  it  is  an  important  publication." — Richmond  Southertt  Churchman. 

"  In  this  volume  Prof.  Legge  presents  the  results  of  careful  study,  with  a  clearness  of 
style  and  method  which  entitles  him  to  the  gratitude  of  readers  who  are  mterested  ui  the 
study  of  comparative  religions." — Boston  Daily  yournal. 

"Nowhere  else  is  so  cle.ir  a  detail  of  the  distinctive  features  and  characteristics  of 
»he  Chinese  religions  given,  and  nowhere  'ilse  are  the  contrasts  and  similarities  hetweer 
them  and  the  Christian  rehgion  brought  witliin  a  more  compact  compass."— 

Albany  yournal. 

"Prof.  Legge's  philological  di.scussions  are  extremely  interesting,  and  his  reasoning 
close  and  fascinating.  Incidentallv  he  gives  us  an  insight  into  the  social  and  lamily  re- 
lations of  the  Chinese,  which  are  involved  in  and  governed  by  the  duties  and  obhgaiior.s 
imposed  by  religion." — Waterbury  Americatt. 


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CHARLES   SCRIBNER'S   SONS,  Publishers, 

743  .A.ND  745  Broadway,  New  York. 


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